If the Glove Fits
by Bad Temper
Summary: Ed and Roy deal with the aftermath of an attack on Central HQ. Roy feels the need to apologize to Ed after he was caught in the Colonel's 'crossfire'. Heh heh. See what I did there? Ed x Roy goodness will ensue. No likie no readie. Rated 4 later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Yo yo yo! This is Bad Temper! First I just wanna say thanks for clickin' on my fic! Please let me know what ya think!

Also, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did, Vic's script would be tooooootally different. ;)

**If the Glove Fits**

"Hawkeye! Have you seen Fullmetal around?"

Hawkeye stood midstride in the doorway as she was entering. "Yes sir, should I go fetch him for you, Colonel Mustang?"

"No, that won't be necessary. Can you tell me where he is?"

"I saw him just a couple of minutes ago. He was on his way to his temporary barracks with his brother."

"Very good," Mustang said as he rose from his desk.

"May I ask where you are going sir? You have a lot of paper work to do after that fiasco and the higher-ups are expecting a detailed report."

Mustang sighed, "Don't nag me, Hawkeye. I'm well aware of what happens when a genocidal maniac tries to destroy the Central Head Quarters in an attempt to kill as many state alchemists as possible. It's happened often enough."

Unfortunately, the Colonel had a good point. Central had a bad history of being sought and destroyed by inhuman or alchemical maniacs. But that still didn't address the fact that Colonel Mustang was leaving a mountain of paperwork that today's catastrophe had produced almost untouched.

"Sir, I can relay a message to Fullmetal for you if you need."

"That won't be necessary," Mustang repeated a little more firmly this time. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I wish to address him myself. After all, it is my fault for what happened to him today. I wish to apologize to him personally."

Riza gave the colonel a quick assessment and concluded that his intentions were genuine. She nodded. "Yes sir, I understand," and stepped out of the way.

As Mustang passed her in the doorway he stopped, "Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Yes sir?"

He looked at her with earnest dark eyes. "You did excellent work today. You know I'd have been killed a long time ago if not for you."

"I know, sir." Riza paused. Such an indulgence was not common from the Colonel. She wasn't caught off guard very often, but that sure did it. "Thank you sir…"

"No. Thank you."

Mustang continued down the hall, leaving his Lieutenant slightly flattered… until she looked back to the massive stack of paperwork he had left sitting on his desk. She sighed. She had little hope for the fate of today's report…

**Bad Temper: **Well what do ya think so far? Please R&R! But no flames please.


	2. Chapter 2

What? Chapter 2 already? sho nuff! R&R please!

**Chapter 2**

Edward Elric performed his trademark flop onto the love seat in his scarcely furnished room. The light impact reminded him very suddenly of the mild but numerous injuries he had recently sustained - injuries such as his bruised upper arm, aching back, and several mild burns about his body. The burns were mostly on his left flank, arm and cheek and the majority of them were very mild to the point where they didn't need any dressing. They just needed to air out. Of course those were the kind of burns that hurt the most.

He leaned forward and hissed at the sudden reminder. He reconsidered and stood back up from the small couch and walked across the room to the dresser where there was also a full mirror. He stood looking into the mirror giving him self a once over.

"Ed, are you sure you feel okay? I mean you look really rough."

"No, I'm okay Al. The burns look a lot worse than they really are. You were there, the doctor said so."

"I know."

"I can't say the same for my clothes though." Ed said as he looked over his shoulder at the burnt up red coat that had been discarded at the foot of the bed. Both of the sleeves, the right side and most of the tail had been thoroughly singed by the flames that he had barely avoided himself. "Al, could you go to the front desk and see about getting me some clothes and maybe call Auntie Paniko to see about a new coat?"

"Yes, brother." Al hopped up from his position on the side of the bed, always eager to help his big brother, especially after he had been through such a thorough beating.

"Thanks Al!" Ed shouted as his brother trotted past and out the door. Once the door was shut, Ed pealed off his now sweaty and sooty black tank. Underneath was a couple bruises and one large first degree burn on his left side that seemed to glow a bright pink reminiscent of the color of Colonel Mustang's cheek after the occasional and usually unfortunate encounter with an ex lover.

There was no denying it. He looked awful. He was covered with scrapes, bruises, burns, and ash. He also noticed that his trademark braid had fallen out almost completely into a mess that vaguely resembled the stray straw that sticks out of a scarecrow. For a moment he considered taking a nice hot shower and washing away all the soot and soothing his aching muscles but as he turned he thought about the burns again.

"Maybe I should wait till morning," he said to himself. The burns would need time to air out and begin to heal. Getting them wet now would be somewhat counterproductive, and – hot or cold – the water would hurt when it touched him. He sighed and turned back to the dresser and picked up his hairbrush. At the least he could fix the tangled mess on his head.

**Bad Temper: **I know the first few chapters are short. But stick with me. I'll be getting to the meat of the story soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Colonel Mustang knew his way around the halls of Central HQ as if it were his own home. He didn't need to pay attention to where he was going, which was convenient because right now, paying attention was the last thing on his mind.

He stared absently at the floor ahead of him as his mind rewound and played the day's events over in his head.

o_o_o_o

Central had been attacked that day by a person who could best be described as a psychotic conspiracy theorist. He was an older man, probably in his fifties, with a crazed expression and a hairdo to match. And his physique was a little too ripped and bulky for a man his age. In general he looked like an Einstein on steroids. He kept screaming gibberish about the military having 'invented' alchemy as a means to take over the world.

He screamed the details of his theories at Central HQ through a bullhorn while standing in the middle of the street. At first Mustang, Fullmetal and a couple of the higher-ups who happened to be at the head quarters stood at the Colonel's window watching and listening as the lunatic yammered on. They were hoping that one of the few vehicles in the city would not see him and smash into him and hopefully end the disturbance then and there.

Unfortunately all the motorists either went around or stopped and stared in confusion. A small vain started to throb on Mustang's forehead. It was an embarrassment to have a lunatic causing such a commotion in front of his head quarters, especially with his superiors around.

"Well if nobody's gunna run this guy the fuck over, I will."

"Calm down Fullmetal. Let's try to resolve this peacefully before you go transmuting steamrollers."

"Ooh steam rollers! I didn't think of that. Thanks Colonel."

Mustang heaved a deep sigh and mumbled to himself, "Please let the peaceful approach work."

It didn't…

A few minutes later, Fullmetal and the Flame Alchemist exited the front doors of the building accompanied by a couple gunmen on either side of them. Hawk Eye was at her post on the roof of the next building with her rifle aimed and ready.

"Hello there!" Mustang called to the man standing in the street before them, "I am Colonel Mus…"

SHABOOOOM!

Mustang's attempt at diplomacy was rudely interrupted by a giant gnarly looking bolder that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It slammed into the staircase at the entrance of the building RIGHT in front of Mustang and his men. The lot of them sat on the ground where they had been knocked down by the impact. Fullmetal starred slack jawed down at his feet, which were mere inches from where the bolder had embedded itself in the marble stairs.

Colonel Mustang coughed and tried in vain to fan away the dust in the air. "That asshole! I had a whole speech planned."

Fullmetal got to his feet and scaled the giant rock to search for the crazy old man. But what he saw first was much more interesting. There was a giant crater in the ground where the man had been standing. That usually meant one thing. The young, volatile alchemist couldn't help but to grin.

"Hah! Looks like we're doing things my way, Colonel!"

After having a look at what Fullmetal was talking about, Mustang immediately gave orders to one of the nearby marshals to cordon off the surrounding area. He knew this was going to be a one big mess.

o_o_o_o

Mustang looked up at the telltale sound of clanking metal. There came Al, trotting down the hall towards him.

"Oh hey Colonel." Al said, stopping to greet the military officer.

"Hello Al," he paused to look over Al's shoulder, "is your brother with you?"

"No. I'm just running an errand for him. Do you need something?"

"I just wanted to apologize to him for what happened today. I suppose I should apologize to you too for injuring your brother. I'm sorry."

Al seemed to panic, waving his hands dismissively, "Oh no, you don't need to apologize to me. These things tend to happen when you're in the military."

Mustang simply "hmph'ed," He didn't really know what to say to the younger Elric. He wasn't very well versed in dealing with civilians in a formal manner. Especially not civilians that were related to an officer whom had recently been caught in his… 'crossfire.'

"B-but," Al broke the awkward silence, "if you want to talk to my brother, he's still in our room."

"Thanks kiddo," Mustang said curtly and patted Al on the poldren as he continued past him."

"Um… No problem."

_He called me kiddo. _Al thought bemused before he continued along his way as well.

**Bad Temper: **Hello my lovely readers. For those of you who appreciate BL don't worry, it is coming soon! Please stick with me. :) And R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! _Ed cursed to himself as he fumbled with his thick blond hair. Even as dirty and matted as it had gotten from today's ordeal, it was still slipping through his metal fingers like butter. It wasn't like he could see back there and without any actual feeling in his right arm, the task seemed annoyingly impossible. Normally the simple act of braiding his hair wasn't a problem. But without his trademark gloves he couldn't get any traction between his hair and the smooth metal. The problem therefore being that he did NOT in fact have those gloves because SOMEONE had to go and fry them to bits.

Ed growled and shook his hair out in order to make yet another attempt.

There was a knock on his door.

"WHAT!" Ed shouted. His irritation was very apparent in his voice.

Mustang opened the door and stuck his head in. "Am I interrupting anything Fullmetal?"

"No," Ed grumbled, preoccupied with his hair.

"May I come in?"

"Whatever."

Mustang stepped in and shut the door behind him. He cleared his throat in an effort to gain the blonde's full attention.

"Do what'cha gotta do, Colonel Bastard. I'm listening."

The Colonel stood in silence for a moment, looking over the full extent of the damages done to Fullmetal's body. He had to fight back a slight grimace. "I came to apologize for today."

"What the hell, Colonel? You already said sorry right after it happened."

"Yes but… I wanted to say so formally. I feel like I owe it to you to…"

Ed cut him off, "You don't owe me shit."

The Colonel stood silent yet again having no idea how to convey this hyper sense of guilt that had been weighing him down ever since the incident. Ed had still not turned to look at him. He watched as the younger alchemist fussed with his hair, twisting his body as he glared into the mirror, trying to get some sort of view of the tangled confusion going on behind his head.

The Flame Alchemist found himself looking at the young Fullmetal Alchemist a little longer than he typically would. He seemed to be enamored by the way his left bicep flexed as he reached behind his head, the way his ribs were accented as he twisted his body, the trench that was formed along his spine by his sculpted back muscles… The prestigious Colonel never really took the time to observe the younger man's physique. It wasn't like Fullmetal walked around without a shirt very often. It only seemed to happen now because the Colonel had been assessing the damage he had caused him… Yeah that was why.

"Son of a bitch!"

Colonel Mustang was snapped out of his revelry for the second time that day.

Ed shook his hair out again, furiously. He snatched the brush off of the dresser and started yanking it through his hair so violently that Mustang could almost feel his own scalp stinging.

"Having some trouble, Fullmetal?"

"Fuck you AND your short hair, Colonel Asshole!"

"Why don't you just cut it off if it's so much trouble?" Mustang asked, trying in vain to hold back a chuckle.

"Because I don't wanna! Besides it's NOT any trouble when I have my GLOVES on! But thanks to some jerk-wad I don't have any gloves!"

Edward shot his superior an I'd-kill-you-if-it-wouldn't-get-me-fired look that sobered Mustang up pretty quickly. He whipped back to the mirror to try at his hair for the umpteenth time.

Then something strange happened. Mustang wasn't really sure how it happened. It just felt like his body started moving while his mind could only watch from a distance screaming, "_What the hell are you doing you idiot_! _Stop! He'll break both of your arms!_"

**Bad Temper: **Here it coooomes! ^_^


	5. Chapter 5

**Finallyyyyy! I'm so excited! Here it is! Chapter 5!**

Chapter 5

Without a word Mustang walked over to the already aggravated Fullmetal and snatched the hairbrush from the younger man's hand. Edward froze for just a split second before whipping around to face him.

"What the hell!" he hooted.

Mustang simply shoved the prodigy's shoulder forcing him back around to face the mirror. But, the stubborn kid that he was, Ed craned his head over his shoulder, insisting on an explanation.

"Seriously! What the hell do you think you're doing? Let go of me."

Mustang didn't let go. In fact he now had a firm grip on Ed's dirty golden tresses and every time the stubborn subordinate tried to crane his head, he would simply yank it to reorient him. This transaction repeated itself for the next minute or so. Ed grunted and growled reaching behind his head to try and bat at the annoying Colonel. But the man was just out of reach.

"MUSTAAANG!"

"Hold still!" Mustang barked as he began to drag the brush through the spitfire's hair. He used the brush as a tool to gather all the wheat colored locks into his hand.

"I can braid my own fucking hair! Give me my fucking brush back and LET GO!"

"God, you're annoying!" Mustang's brows knitted together and his mouth twitched at the corner. "You obviously can't braid your own hair. So I'm not giving you your brush back until I'm done."

"Fuck you! You just wanna pull my hair and make me scream! You're such a perv!"

"Noooo. Your attitude was just getting on my nerves. I was trying to make a point and you just kept fussing over your damn hair like some kind of schoolgirl. So aggravating." He yanked on Ed's hair again as the younger man insisted on trying to turn around. "Now stay STILL!"

"Dammit Col-"

"That's an order!"

Edward's jaw snapped shut and his teeth clenched. If there was one way to make the elder Elric shut up it was an order from Colonel Mustang. But did this really count? The man was braiding his hair for Gate's Sake. He stared at the Colonel in the mirror, finally relenting to the man's firm grip on his hair, and watched as he went about braiding it.

Based on what he could see in the mirror and the feel of the tugging on his hair, the Colonel was actually quite precise with it. He could feel him folding the three locks tautly over each other at the nape of his neck. In the mirror he could see the look of focus on Colonel Mustang's face in the way he had his head lowered with those onyx eyes fixed on his task. His features were always so controlled, giving him that stoic appearance that so easily hypnotized those who took the time to really look at him. Even Edward found himself oddly fixated on the man in the mirror. He wasn't wearing his military jacket and he had his sleeves rolled up rather tightly over his strong biceps. He couldn't help but to notice the way the muscles in his forearms flexed rapidly, almost seeming to dance in tandem to the dexterous movements of his hands.

_Wait! What! What the hell are you thinking! There's nothing cool about his muscles! There's nothing 'stoic' or 'hypnotizing' about him at all! He's just an annoying, arrogant, egocentric, obnoxious, Colonel! Yea! Fuck him!_

Edward gritted his teeth and growled. But the Colonel simply owned the aggravated vocalization to the kid's frustration with his current situation.

With one hand holding the end of Edward's new braid, he tapped Fullmetal on the shoulder and held out his other hand.

"Give me the rubber band."

Edward huffed and took the red rubber band from his wrist and handed it over to his Colonel. He heard the snapping and popping of the material as it was wrapped around the end of his braid several times until everything was fixed in place.

Colonel Mustang dropped the braid and held up his hands.

"There. All done. Was that so hard?"

"Yes. It was excruciating," Edward growled through his teeth.

Colonel sighed. "Gees Fullmetal, you're such a-"

"Such a WHAT!"

"Brother? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's just freekin' peachy!"

Al wavered a little, standing in the doorway. In his hands was a folded pair of gray sweat pants and a white T-shirt.

"Sorry Al." Ed said as he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just that Colonel Dickweed here has been pissing me off ever since you left." He jabbed an accusing finger in the Colonel's direction.

"Brother, don't say things like that. I'm sure it wasn't his intention to piss you off."

"Actually it was."

"SEE!"

Al simply performed the anime sweat drop in response.

Interrupting Edward's potential tirade, Mustang changed the subject.

"What ya got there, Alphonse?"

"Oh. These are for you, Brother," Al responded, suddenly remembering the clothing in his hands.

Edward calmed down yet again.

"Thanks Al. I really appreciate it."

"No problem, Brother."

"See? Now why can't you treat me with such nice manners?" Mustang interjected.

"Cuz you're an asshole! That's why!"

Al stood before the two of them, looking back and forth between them as they bickered. He felt panicky because he never really knew how to resolve these petty disputes. He never fully understood why his older brother insisting on giving his commanding officer so much trouble in the first place. He was usually pretty civil with people (unless they alluded to his height in any way). But he always seemed so readily inclined to patronize Colonel Mustang and vise versa. The only explanation Al could conjure up in his head seemed ridiculously impossible and he dismissed the idea instantly. But then that left him with no explanation at all. It was really very frustrating.

As Al continued to watch the two men squabble, he noticed something.

"Hey Brother!" He blurted with his metallic echo of a voice.

"Huh?" the two men said in unison as they both came to an abrupt stop. Ed had a lamp in his left hand and was poised to hurl it at his boss. And Mustang, not wearing his jacket and therefore not having the gloves that were tucked away safely in it's pocket was utterly defenseless, holding his arms up to guard his beautiful face.

"What is it, Al?"

"I just noticed that you managed to braid your hair! I wasn't sure you would be able to without your gloves."

Ed simply stood staring at his brother. He was trying with all his might not to burst with anger and embarrassment. In an attempt to hide the building blush in his cheeks he ran his cool metallic hand over his face.

"Yea," he said. Then held his breath for a minute. To his surprise, the Colonel remained silent. "Yea I did."

"Ehem." Mustang cleared his throat. The mismatched brothers turned to look at him. "I think I'll be going now. I still have a mountain of paperwork to do thanks to today's catastrophe. Edward, one of the higher ups has suggested that after the damages are assessed, you should try to fix as much of the damage as possible. Is that okay with you?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"My guess is no."

"I figured."

"Alphonse, I apologize for the disturbance." Mustang began making his way towards the door when he heard Edward speak up again.

"You've apologized enough today. Don't worry about it. It's getting annoying."

Mustang looked over his shoulder at the younger officer and gave him one of those damn 'stoic' grins again. Then a look of realization struck his features.

"Fullmetal! I just thought of something. When you have a moment, tonight. Come by my office before I leave."

"What the hell for? Haven't you tortured me enough for one day?" Ed retorted, pointing to his left side to emphasize his point.

Mustang stood in the doorway with one hand on the doorknob and the other on his chin. "I suppose not. But I could if you're in to that kind of thing," he snarked.

"Rahhhh!"

The aforementioned lamp shattered against the door as it shut and the sound of the colonel's laughter could be heard distancing down the hall on the other side.


	6. Chapter 6

**Bad Temper: **Woooo! Chapter siiiiix! *fist pump* Thanks to all of you readers who are sticking with me! I love you for reading this!

**Chapter 6**

The office was dim. The sky outside was overcastted and gray, darkening with the coming night. A warm glow emanated from the green banker's lamp that sat at the corner of Colonel Mustang's desk. He was leaning forward resting his head in one hand and tapping the back end of his pen against the dark cherry wood of his work surface. In front of him was the last of the property damage reports. He read it and made sure everything was accounted for properly and then finally signed it. With that he was done with the damage reports and now it was time move on to the injury reports.

Of course, the first paper in that file was the one addressing Edward 'FullMetal' Elric. Attached to it was a sheet containing the doctor's full assessment of Edward Elric's injuries. Mustang held the papers in both hands as he began to read.

The full detailed report included a bruised abdomen as a result of the transmutation impact, mild first degree burns on his hands and left arm as well as large second degree burns on his left flank as a result from the explosion, and a bruised left upper-arm and scraped knee as a result of being thrown by the concussion caused by the explosion. Other injuries included scrapes and bruises caused by combat and shrapnel. All injuries, while painful, are minor. Treatment requirement included properly cleaning, disinfecting and redressing of open wounds, airing out of his burns, drinking plenty of fluids and lighter to little work load. Prognosis is good.

Once he had finished reading the entire assessment, he sat back in his chair and rotated so that he could look out of the window. The bulk of the damage done to the HQ facilities and roadways could be seen out the large bay window. The streetlights were beginning to turn on in the late evening darkness and the glow of their incandescent lamps casted shadows into the rubble, intensifying the look of the damage that had been caused.

Mustang was aware that he had injured the young FullMetal today. But after reading the report, it pained him even more to see just how far the injuries went, and that the majority of those injuries were caused by him and not the maniac. He sighed and slumped into his chair as he stared out the window.

O_o_O_o_O_o_O

FullMetal ran headlong towards the eccentric conspiracy theorist. It seemed rash, but being the quick and observant teen that he was, it was likely that he knew something that the others didn't.

The old man clapped his hands together much like Fullmetal did before each transmutation. He put his hands to the sidewalk and drew up another jagged bolder and then launched at the young blonde charging straight for him.

Without hesitation, Fullmetal ducked forward, clapped his hands together and brushed them against the passing bolder, dispersing it into sand and kept charging.

"Fancy trick old man! But mine's cooler!"

The older man seemed to panic, slapping his hands back together, but he wasn't fast enough. Fullmetal already had his sward arm ready in a flash of light and was slashing at the man. His intention wasn't so much to slice and dice the man but to scare him and throw him off balance. And it was working quite well.

The crazy old man backed up more and more, trying to dodge the glinting blade with little success. He was cut across the face, his forearms were slashed up, and his dirty old button up shirt was torn open in a couple spots along the torso. Finally Fullmetal stopped with the slashing and gave the old man one solid kick, landing his left foot right in his sternum and sending him flying for several feet.

He slammed into the low brick wall that surrounded the military dorms. Fullmetal stood proudly with a childish smirk on his face. But he didn't see that the man had placed his hands together behind his back and then placed them on the ground quietly. Suddenly a tower of concrete sprouted from the sidewalk and into the young alchemist. It caught him right in his pelvis and plowed him twelve feet into the air.

Up until that point, the Flame Alchemist felt it suitable to let the kid beat up on the crazy senior until he was ready to give up. Not many could hold out against one of Edward's beatings for very long. But when the Flame saw the younger alchemist pummeled into the air like a rag doll he instinctively moved in.

Colonel Mustang reached into his pockets and drew out his gloves as he ran towards Fullmetal, preparing to defend the blonde. With his hand at the ready, Mustang was about to snap a localized burst of fire at the old extremist. But just then, a bullet struck the ground RIGHT at his feet. He stopped in his tracks, looked at the smoking divot in the asphalt and then looked up. Sure enough, Hawkeye was at her post at the top of the building looking right back at him. She shook her head at him and then looked pointedly back at the old man. Mustang followed suit and, after a moment of closer observation, saw what she was trying to indicate to him.

Through the slits that hung open in his shredded shirt, Mustang could see what looked like TNT strapped to the man's waist.

There was the sudden sound of a clap and Mustang looked up to see Fullmetal transmuting the pillar that held him in the air back to the ground. He stood on the rebuilt sidewalk with his hands on his knees, trying to breath slowly and get the air to return to his lungs.

"I gotta hand it to ya," Edward coughed out, "That was pretty resourceful. And I've never seen anybody use a method like that before. It kinda reminds me of this one guy that liked to blow things up. He was a really bad guy." He paused and tried to straighten up. "So tell me. Are you a really bad guy too?"

O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o_O

"Colonel Mustang?"

The colonel pitched forward and the chair nearly rolled out from under him.

"Ah Fullmetal!" He spun around in his chair to face the blonde that owned that sweet raspy voice.

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Well there's no reason to seem so up tight, Fullmetal. It doesn't suit you."

"It's been a long day."

"Yes I suppose it has. You should think about getting yourself a girlfriend, Chief. You're getting to the age when a guy needs a little –"

"Would you just get to the point, Colonel Nympho?"

"Nympho? What are you implying? I was just gunna say a little TLC and a home cooked meal."

"Yea whatever. Look, I just wanna go to bed. Do you have something to say to me or can I just go?"

Mustang heaved a deep sigh. "You're such a downer some-"

Edward cut him off, "And if you apologize one more time, I'm going to turn your feet into rubber ducks!"

"Alright, alright. Keep you pants on." Mustang opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a small box. "I have something for you." He opened the said box.

The younger alchemist leaned slightly to the side trying to get a better view of the contents of the small box until Mustang solved the mystery for him. From it he drew out a pair of gloves and on each of those gloves was one of the infamous flame alchemy symbols.

"Your gloves?"

"Mhmm."

"I don't understand."

"I am going to order your new gloves as a token of my…" Mustang caught himself, remembering Edward's earlier threat. "… My regret. And in the meantime I want you to wear these. I know you don't like people staring at your automail."

The younger officer stood staring at his superior. His eyes narrowed, as he seemed to pontificate the possible consequences of accepting the gloves.

"What about you?"

Mustang laughed.

"Don't be silly, Fullmetal. A trained alchemist is always prepared." He turned the small box around on the desk to reveal several pairs stacked neatly within its red velvet lining. "I always have extras on-hand."

(*AN: Hehe. See what I did there? Cus they're gloves and they go on your… Oh nvm.)

Edward scratched his head as he walked towards the Colonel, still staring at the gloves. Mustang simply gestured at him with the gloves in hand, beckoning him closer.

Edward took the gloves from Mustang. He had never actually touched the Colonel's gloves before. They felt so much different from his own. They had a dry rough texture that was presumably due to the flint-like material that they were made from. He looked up at Mustang again before finally, hesitantly slipping them on. The insides were smooth and silky and surprisingly breathable.

"Hey, these are kinda' nice."

"Of course they are. I don't accept anything but the best." Mustang pointed at Edwards's hands. "And they're only a little bit too big for you. I was afraid it would be more so."

"Let's not make cracks about my size this late at night," Edward growled through his teeth. Although, he couldn't really deny that the Colonel had a valid point. Edward himself hadn't expected the gloves to fit as well as they did. They were still a bit oversized but it wasn't all that noticeable. He looked back up at his Colonel. "Thank you Mustang."

"It really is the least I can do. Now tell me your glove size so that I can order them for you."

"Medium."

"So you've grown out of the smalls finally?"

"You're an asshole."

"I know." Mustang chuckled. "You're free to go, Fullmetal. Go home and get some rest. Today was an exceedingly hecktic day and, to be honest, tomorrow won't be much better with all the repercussions that we'll have to deal with."

"Yea, ok then."

"Oh and Fullmetal."

"Hm?"

"Don't play around with those gloves. It would be just like you to burn down one of these facilities. So DON'T do it."

Edward gave the Colonel one of his mischievous grins. "Heh! You should'a thought about that before you gave them to me!"

"Fullmetal…" Mustang said in a deep warning tone.

"Oh yea and just for the record, Colonel…"

"Hm?"

"You're forgiven. So don't be sorry anymore."

The colonel just looked at his officer for a few seconds before giving him an affirming nod. "Thank you, Fullmetal. Now go on and get some shut eye."

"Kay. G'night, Colonel."

"Night, Ed."

Once the door closed behind Edward, the Flame Alchemist let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He slumped back in his chair causing the material of his shirt to bunch up around his shoulders and collar. Looking back down, he saw the injury report for Edward Elric.

"Gloves are replaceable. You are not. New gloves are the least I could do. The absolute least."

He leaned forward again and signed Edward's paperwork before moving on to the next.

Once he was in the hallway, Edward leaned against the door to his commander's office and looked down at his hands. For some reason he could feel his cheeks get a little warm. The gloves bunched a little bit in between his fingers, but otherwise they didn't seem too terribly big for him. He was 17 now and had been going through some growth spurts lately. In fact he had been planning on bringing Winry out to central soon, because he had outgrown his automail for the second time in the past year and a half. His right arm was almost two inches shorter than his left, and his automail leg was almost half an inch shorter than his right causing him to step on it a little heavily. In fact he was bordering on a limp. But despite all of that, he was still much shorter than all of his fellow male coworkers. And chances were that he would stay that way until he could get his brother's body back from the gate. Which meant that he would be subjected to Mustangs aggravating short jokes for a long...

"Wait a minute," Ed clenched his fists. "Who does he think he is, calling me by my first name!"

O_o_O_o_O_o_O

**Mustang**: What's wrong with calling him Ed?

**Bad Temper:** It implies that you're getting kinda cosy with him.

**Ed:** What do you mean by cosy?

**Mustang: **Ooooooh...

**Bad Temper:** It means whatever you think it means, Ed.

**Ed:** *processing* Wahhh! Now way!

**Mustang:** Oh come on, Ed

**Ed: **No way! Get away from me you Colonel Pervert! *runs*

**Mustang:** *Chases with kissy face*

**Bad Temper:** Heheh. Well my lovely readers, you can see wear this is going. It's just going there slowly. So if you're STILL sticking with me, I love you for it. And if it's not too much trouble PLEASE R&R! I'll love you for that too!


	7. Chapter 7

**Bad Temper:** Damn right, this is chapter 7! Man, I rock! So this one is a looot longer than longer than my other chapters. Hope you love it!

Chapter 7

"Hey brother."

"Hey Al."

"So what did Colonel Mustang want?"

Ed heaved a deep sigh before holding up his hands for Al to see. "He wanted to give me these." He turned them over to reveal the unmistakable arrays on the backs. "They're a pair of his gloves. He wants to order me a new pair since he destroyed mine and he gave me these to wear in the meantime."

"Awww. How sweet." Al replied as he leaned over Ed's hands to look at the familiar alchemy circles.

"Sweet?" Ed retorted with a not-so-subtle hint of disgust in his voice. "I don't think that's the word I would use to describe it. I mean it's like he said; he owed it to me."

He could feel his face getting warm again.

"But I thought you were tired of him apologizing. If that's the case, then doesn't it seem kind of hypocritical to accept this token of his apology?"

"Yeaaaa. But he was so persistent. I figured I could give him a little peace of mind by taking them."

Al giggled a bit and Ed looked up with an indignant expression already in place.

"Why's that so funny?"

"I just think it's kinda' cute. He's the one that got you all burned up and yet _you're _the one trying to make _him _feel better. You're such a softy, Ed."

"I am not! You think a 'softy' could go through attaching an automail arm and leg like this!" The older brother pointed his gloved hand at his right arm in an effort to make a point.

His little brother continued giggling softly, creating a soothing echo within his large metal chest.

"Besides," Ed calmed down a bit, "It's kind of a novel thing to be wearing the gloves of the famous Flame Alchemist, Colonel Mustang."

"What do you mean brother? You're famous too. You're the Fullmetal Prodigy. What makes Colonel Mustang so cool?"

"Oh nothing. 'Sept for the fact that he can do this." Ed held up his right hand with his fingers poised to snap.

"Brother don't-"

Ed snapped his fingers and small sparks jutted out for a split second before being automatically enhanced by the alchemy circle on the glove, expanding them into a small ball of fire that suddenly choking out with a bright flash and a burst of smoke.

"Wow. This little alchemy circle is pretty strong."

"Brother, you shouldn't mess with those gloves like that. You don't know how to use them."

"Meh. I can learn them easily enough. After all, I'm the Alchemy Prodigy here. You mentioned that yourself."

"But you shouldn't play around with them anyway. Colonel Mustang gave you those out of kindness-"

"He owed it to me."

"None the less, it's disrespectful to treat his trade like a play thing. I bet he even told you himself not to play with them."

"… Well… Yea but-"

"Case in point. He told you not to."

Ed looked up at his younger brother for a minute then back down at the new gloves. "But they're so cool."

The soft metallic echo of Al's laughter sounded again.

"Errr! What now?"

"You sound like a love sick fan girl."

"I DO NOT!"

"Hahaha! Do too!"

"Al!"

Al simply pointed, "Hahaha! Look you're even blushing! Why are you blushing, brother?"

"I'm not blushing! I'm just really angry!"

"Suuure."

"Al!" Ed's voice was getting loud and shrill. There was a bang on the wall followed by the muffled sound of one of the many other officers (who had also been temporarily relocated due to the day's damages) yelling at them to hush up from the other side.

"Sorry!" Al shouted back earnestly before turning to his brother and holding up his hands in an attempt to calm him down. "I was just kidding, Ed. Try to calm down. People are trying to sleep."

"Then don't say stupid things like that." Ed replied in a huff. He scoffed and went over to sit at the small desk in the corner of the room next to the window. He turned on the tall floor-lamp in the corner seeing as how the desk lamp had been smashed to bits earlier that day, and took off his loaned gloves.

The younger brother watched as his older brother sat in the soft light, bent over the fire alchemy gloves, studying their arrays closely, seeming to pick them apart in his mind.

"Me thinks the prodigy doth protest too much." Al said softly to himself.

"What was that, Al?"

"Nothing brother. Just thinking out loud."

"Oh. Alright then."

_But maybe it's true. He did seem to be a little over defensive just then. Could his earlier conclusion for Ed's behavior around Colonel Mustang have been correct? Could he really… No the mere thought of it seemed absurd. And there was no chance of asking Ed about it directly. That would probably result in some flash of alchemy that would destroy half the command center. The other half. The half that wasn't already destroyed. _

Al sighed due to his mind-boggling thoughts.

"Oooooh." Ed said with that 'ah-hah' tone to his voice.

Al looked over to see that his brother had taken out a pen and pad of paper and was scribbling notes as he looked at the gloves. He shook his head. His big brother had always had a passion for alchemy. Everyone knew that. But compared to what they had learned and experienced on their journeys, he would have expected Ed to give the Colonel's gloves just a passing glance, but no. He was analyzing them as if they held the secret to the Philosopher's Stone, scrawling out notes and diagrams and pieces and parts of the arrays all over his note pad. The gloves seemed simple enough in comparison to some of the studies they had pursued. So what was it about them that had the seventeen-year old alchemy prodigy so captivated?

The younger brother sat on the bed taking on a pose reminiscent of the 'Thinker'. Maybe there _was_ a way to ask Ed about his theories for the recent episodes of his older brother's behavior toward the Colonel. A kind of back door way of asking him if you will…

"Brother?"

"Hm?" Ed's head popped up. Ever alert to the sound of his younger brother's voice.

"I just don't get it. That type of alchemy on the Colonel's gloves just seems like it'd be a passing thought to alchemists like us. We've studied and attempted things way more complex than that. Why is this so interesting?"

Ed looked at his younger brother with thoughtful eyes. "Well," he shrugged and looked up at the ceiling, "I suppose it's like you said before, Al. I don't really know how to use these gloves. And I'm the famous Fullmetal Alchemist. I'll be damned if I let a simple alchemy like this baffle me."

"Huh," Al said thoughtfully, "That sounds rational enough."

_That_ comment, however, caught Ed's attention. "What do you mean by that?" a hint of arising irritation in his voice.

_Oh no, he's onto me._

Al waved his hands about. "Oh it's nothing, Brother."

"Listen Al, I don't think I like what you're getting at." Ed stood up from his desk and picked up the flame alchemy gloves.

"Er. Uh. I'm not getting at anything, Ed." Al cowered slightly where he was on the bed.

"I can tell when you're lying, Al!"

"Um. No you can't."

"Yes I can cus you suck at it! Now what's really on you mind?" Ed began pulling on the gloves.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to show you why these gloves are so interesting." The tone in the older Elric's voice was menacing and that grin that always denoted trouble was plastered across his face.

"No, Brother! You really shouldn't!" Al began waving his big steal arms around franticly as if they were light as feathers.

"Why not! I'm the alchemy prodigy, here! And I've already got these things figured out, see?" Ed held his left hand up again, with his fingers ready to snap.

Al clambered to the far side of the room in a pitiful effort to distance himself from his overly volatile brother. And it was at about that point when Ed was JUST about to snap his fingers, that there was a loud racket of fists banging violently against their door followed the sound of about three different men howling at the boys to "Shut the hell up!"

In his startled reflex, Ed yanked his arm back as his fingers snapped. A large flare of fire plumed out from the friction and whisked up the wall behind the blond. He instantly whirled around, forgetting the ruckus at the door and fully focused on the lively flames as they seemed to scamper across the drapes of their dorm window and began charring at the ceiling.

"Aw hell!"

"Brother!" Al yipped, sounding accusing as well as frightened.

"I know! Quick! Give me something to transmute into a hose! We can run the water from the bathroom in here!"

The brothers scrambled around the room disparately trying to find a suitable material before the smoke caused the… Then the fire alarm began shrieking and the sprinklers came on.

"Dammit!"

O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o_O

The brothers stood in the quart yard staring up at the dorm building. Edward looked over his shoulder at the group of soldiers and officers who glared back at him collectively. They would all have to be relocated for the second time that night and nobody was happy about that.

Ed turned his back to all of the men and women giving him that 'I'd-kill-you-if-it-wouldn't-get-me-fired' look. But even with his back turned he could still feel the mental daggers that they all sent his way.

"Brother, are you okay?"

Ed just kept quiet, boring a hole into the ground with his eyes.

"Okay! First thing's first! We have to make sure everyone is accounted for. So be quiet and pay attention!"

The two boys looked up at the sound of Riza's voice.

_Aw maaaan! Of course! This is gunna go straight to Mustang's desk in the morning! That bastard's NEVER gunna let me live this down!_

Al heard a thump and looked down to see that his brother had plopped to the ground in a rough Indian style position with his hands gripping the sides of his head. He felt sorry for his big brother. He knew that the Colonel would most likely give him a ton of grief for this particular incident for months to come. It was at times like this that Al appreciated not having been able to enter into the military.

As the names were called out, everyone raised their hands and said "here," as if they were in grade school roll call again. Ed tensed himself when they got to the E's.

"Alphonse Elric?"

Al nervously raised his hand, "Here."

"Edward Elric?"

Ed flinched. He could feel the needle-like stares that were shot at him from every person in the crowd. He meekly lifted his hand and said in a tiny voice, "here."

**Bad Temper: **Sooooo I was having a lot of fun with this chapter and I kiiiinda got a little carried away. I had to force myself to cut it short. But due to that, the next chapter si going to be kind of an in-between-chapters chapter.

Please R&R!


	8. Chapter 8

**Bad Temper: **OMG I'm amazing! I seem to post chapters in pairs! I can't WAIT to get to post chapters 9 and 10. There's some JUICY stuff coming up. But my hands are killing me. I don't think I can write any more tonight. :( And I really want to. So enjoy chapter 8 While I go recuperate. Kay thanks. ^_^

**Chapter 8**

Fortunately the sprinklers were deactivated almost immediately after they had started. The water damage, though minimal, was wide spread throughout the temporary dorm facility.

There were four large dormitory building for the Central Command Center. One was for residential officers. Edward, Alphonse, and others like Fury were kept there because they either couldn't afford they're own permanent residence or they were not stationary long enough to maintain a permanent residence. The next two buildings were more like hotel rooms for traveling or temporarily stationed military personnel. And the fourth one was for, essentially, extra space in case of extraneous circumstances. Since the fight with the extremist that previous day, they had been staying in the fourth facility. But now Edward Elric had caused enough water damage to have to temporarily move to the second hotel facility where there was enough room to re-house the residential military personnel… again.

Ed had found himself a bench on the other side of the quart yard where he watched the commotion from a distance. It was going on early morning and the sky was taking on a slight teal hue at the horizon where the sun was slowly approaching. He _would _help the others with moving out the personal things and soaked mattresses and furniture. He would even use his handy alchemy to help. But every time he tried, he was plagued with more mental daggers from all of the other officers. So he resigned himself to the bench across the quart yard as far away from the commotion as he could get.

His brother stood patiently beside him. He looked down at the shorter blonde boy. He looked even smaller than usual, the way he had curled himself into a ball where he sat on the bench, hugging his knees and watching the others almost forlornly.

"Brother…"

"Shuddup, Al."

"Hey, this isn't my fault. I told you not to play with Colonel Mustang's gloves."

Ed huffed and pressed his face into his knees. "I know Al. I'm sorry. It's just," the boy paused for a few beets, "That damn Colonel is going to be so pissed at me. I just know he's gunna ride my ass about this for _weeks! _I'll never here the end of it." He sighed weakly and picked up his head to rest his chin on his knees. "Life is gunna suck for a while. We should try to find another lead on the Philosopher's Stone and get the hell outa' here."

The two of them were silent for a while after that. Both of them had hundreds of thoughts and feeling whirling around in their heads. After a few minutes, Al broke the silence, unable to hold in his curiosity any longer.

"Hey, Ed?"

"Hm?"

"I've been meaning to ask you something…"

"What is it, Al?"

Al paused. He was afraid to ask. But really, what did Ed have left to destroy? Two buildings aught to have been enough at this point. Al could only hope. He looked down at his brother again. Ed was staring up at him with an expression of slowly fading patience mixed with growing concern.

"Well? Spit it out."

"I… Um… I was just wondering, why you've been so moody around Colonel Mustang lately."

Ed's amber eyes narrowed.

"I mean," Al began to panic, "I know you're always moody around him cus he's such a jerk and all but… It's just… recently..."

Ed's eyes had narrowed to slits and began to glaze over with rising anger.

"You've seemed overly emotional around him, even more than usual. And every time I talk about him or ask about him you get extremely defensive and when stuff like this happens," Al gestured to the sopping wet dorm building, "The first thing on your mind is how the Colonel is going to react. So… I was just curious if…"

"If what?" Ed's voice was surprisingly low and gravely. His tone was seething with anger and it made Al take a step back.

"Do you have feelings for the Colonel!" Al blurted out, wanting nothing more than to finish what he had started and hope that Ed would end his life quickly instead of making him suffer.

Ed's reaction was surprisingly calm and yet extremely disconcerting. His face seemed to darken. He leaned back on his bench and put his feet on the ground. His hands gripped the edge of the wood and he looked down at the ground.

"Yea… Actually, I do." Ed said forebodingly.

Al stared in disbelief.

"That epic bastard. He bosses me around, sends me on meaningless missions, makes fun of my height. I'm not even as short as I used to be, you know!" Ed gritted his teeth. He could feel his face getting hot. "And he does it all mercilessly, not knowing what the hell it does to me. What _he _does to me." His grip on the wooden slat of the bench was tightening to where his automail hand was beginning to crush it into splinters. "And now it's just gunna get ten times worse when he finds out about what I did last night. He's going to laugh and point and mock ten times more than he always does!" He grunted, "I HATE THAT SMUG, ARROGANT, BASTARD!"

Al took another step back to give his brother room for the oncoming rant.

Ed's right hand crackled through the wood of the bench. "He always makes me feel weird when I'm around him. But then he always teases me and makes fun of me and it PISSES ME OFF! He's an asshole and I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM SO MUCH!" Ed jumped from his broken bench as he made that final declaration, shouting it to the quart yard. His face was red hot and her couldn't decide if it was from embarrassment or pure anger.

Ed and Al stood looking at each other in silence. Deafening silence. Ed's chest heaved as he came down from his temper. And Al waited until he could deem it safe enough to speak again.

"So… You _do_ have feelings for Colonel Mustang."

"Ugh. Yes I guess I do. You wanna fight about it?" Ed retorted. He could feel his pulse in his burning hot cheeks.

"No. There's nothing wrong with liking somebody-"

"I _hate_ him."

"Either way. I'm just glad to know what's been making you act so weird around him… more so than usual. You know, you should probably talk to him abou- "

"Psh! You can stop right there, Al!" Ed scoffed at his overly rational brother. He turned his back on the empathetic hunk of armor, clapped his hands together, knelt down, and fixed the bench.

"Brother…"

"So what do ya think, Al. Should I go over there and use my alchemy to fix the place up or should we make'm wait a little bit longer."

"Brother, it's not nice to hold out on them like that."

"Whatever!" Ed put his hands on his hips and turned his nose up. "It's their fault for being such unforgiving douche ba-"

"Brother!"

"Alright! Alright! Fine! Geese."

O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o_O

By six o'clock that morning, Colonel mustang was driving around the command center on his way to the parking garage. As he rounded the main building he could see across the courtyard where the four dorm buildings were lined up. Everything looked normal – aside from half of the residential building being smashed to bits - and it never occurred to him that there had been a minor disaster there at eleven o'clock last night.

Aside from the carnage that was left over from the extremist yesterday everything seemed fairly normal. He went to his office, humming some sort of folk tune to himself. But as soon as he saw the look of utter exhaustion on Fury's face and the look of 'I-have-some-news-for-you-that-you're-not-going-to-like' on Hawkeye's face, Mustang felt his stomach churn just a little.

"Morning officers!"

Mustang's greet was met with a couple tired waves and by Fury slumping out of his chair and hitting the floor before waking back up in a startled panic.

"No sleeping on the job, Fury."

"Y-yes sir." Fury replied, sounding pitiful.

Mustang continued into his office, closely followed by Hawkeye. He sat down at his desk and his Second Lieutenant closed the door behind them with a batch of files in-hand. She placed them on his desk in her always-precise manner.

"What's this?"

"An incident report."

"For what? I just got here."

"It occurred in the late hours last night. You had already left for home. I suggest that you take a look at it right away."

Mustang sighed. "Alright," he drawled out, "Anything else?"

"No sir."

What was that look in her eyes? A faint glint of something… Humor… Amusement?

"Alright, then. You're dismissed."

"Yes sir." Hawkeye said and obediently turned to leave the room.

As soon as the door was latched, without the Colonel knowing, all the other subordinates were leaning in with their ears plastered to the door. Even Riza Hawkeye was standing near by, waiting to hear the Colonel's reaction.

Mustang opened the file and lifted the papers from the manila folder and sat back in his chair with a huff.

"What now?" He said out loud to himself as he began reading. He slowly skimmed the material. "Wait…. What? I know that room number… WHAT?"

All of the subordinates ducked away from the door at the sound of Colonel Mustang's furious voice.

"FULLMETAAAAAAL!"

**Bad Temper: **Uh oooooh. Eddiepoo is in trouble! ^_^ I wonder what Roy is gunna do about it. Don't worry, it won't be TOO cliche, I promise. No really. I promise.


	9. Chapter 9

**Bad Temper: **Sorry for the longer wait everyone. :/ I've had at ton of work to do with school so I had no time to do more important things like draw and write fanfic. But now things have smoothed out and I can get back to work. So here's chapter 9! This chapter is kinda setting the scene for chapter 10. But I tried to at least make it interesting. Tell me what you think! R&R please.

**Chapter 9**

Edward Elric was exhausted. He didn't hold it against anyone that he hadn't gotten ANY sleep last night. It was his own fault. But that didn't stop him from wanting to punch the face of every person in the Command Center hallways that felt the need to say "Good morning," to him in an a gratingly chipper tone.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Last night obviously hadn't gone well for him or anyone in the same building. After he had set off the fire alarm and activated the sprinkler system, everyone had to haul all of their wet furniture and personal belongings outside. Once that had been accomplished, they eventually agreed to let Ed right his wrongs, (to his dismay) and use his alchemy to help. He started out by using his alchemy to disperse most of the moisture from the heaps of cushions and clothing and other various things, making sure not to dry them out too much and cause them to get brittle. After that was done, he had to go to each individual floor of the temporary dorm facility and make sure all of the doors and windows were open. Once that was assured he put his hands to the ground, performing the same alchemy as before to dry out the carpets and then the walls, which caused a burst of hot steam to fill the halls and then disperse safely out the windows and doors. After repeating this tedious process on all four floors as well as the basement the building was nice and dry as before. This meant that the people occupying the building wouldn't need to be relocated a second time that night after all. But that didn't seem to redeem Ed in anyone's eyes. It didn't change the fact that he had kept them up for a majority of the night with yelling, banging, fire alarms, and an impromptu ice-cold community shower.

By the time they had all carried their things back into the building, it was about four o'clock AM. Ed tossed his trademark suitcase into the room and Al came in behind him holding the love seat in one arm and the mattress under the other. Once the room had been put back together, Ed flopped onto his dry-again mattress and immediately bounced right back off, hissing at the searing pain of his burns as they protested the impact. He stood back up and glared incredulously at the bed.

"Ed! Are you ok?"

"Yea, I'm fine."

Ed made a more gentle approach to his bed. He crawled in and laid him self down gingerly. But being in bed didn't really help him sleep. He still had other things to worry about - things much worse than setting his room on fire and nearly destroying another building. Although the first building had been a joint effort. But all of that was irrelevant to his new and, honestly, terrifying predicament. Why on EARTH had he told Al all those things?

The older brother clapped his hands over his face and groaned.

"Brother?"

Ed turned his head and peeked at Al through his fingers in response.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Pft. Talk about what? A lot of shit happened today…" Ed looked out the window at the dim blue morning sky, "… or yesterday, I guess."

"I know. I was talking about what you said when we were –"

"Oh shuddup. I know what you're talking about." Ed scoffed and rolled over, this time having the presence of mind to roll safely onto his right side. "And no. I don't wanna talk about it."

"But brother, we have to talk to each other about these things. It's like you said; if we don't take care of each other, who else will?"

"That doesn't apply to this."

"Sure it does. Ed, I'm your brother. You could at least let me help you sort out your feelings."

Ed flipped back onto his back. "There's nothing to sort out! He's a total bastard and for some reason I like him! And on top of that we're both MEN in the MILITARY!"

"So?"

Ed shot up in his bed and stared at Al with wide, baffled eyes. "So? SO! What do you mean, so!"

Al's armor clinked a bit when he shrugged his large metal shoulders. "Well, first of all, affection isn't just based on someone's gender. It goes much deeper than that. Secondly, there's no law in our country saying that two men can't love each other that way. And thirdly, the Amistrian Military could care less about the relationships and orientations of its personnel. Its sole concern is power and control. Prejudice against the military's own men and women would only cause weakness from the inside out."

Ed only continued to stare at his brother in shock. While he had always been great with alchemy, his brother had always been great at giving matters like this more rational and in depth thought. Eventually, Ed let out a puff of air through his nose.

"Even still, Al…" Ed lay back down, "It's fucking weird. I mean, I never really gave it any thought before now, but I woulda' thought that I'd like girls. It's kind of a hard thing to wrap my head around. Y'know?"

"Typically boys like girls, yea. But you're not really a typical person are you, Ed? And if you've never given it any thought, like you said, then it's understandable that you wouldn't have seen it coming."

"Hmph. You make things sound so logical."

"Well it's simple when you think about it."

"Maybe when YOU think about it. You don't have all those hormones and chemicals and all that puberty junk clouding your thoughts as long as you're in that big heap of armor. But don't worry. It'll happen to you too once we get you're body back. So enjoy it while you can."

The brothers laughed softly at that. Then the room grew quiet. Ed laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling for a while not knowing what to say and not being able to sleep. After about an hour had passed, he gave in to the fact that sleep just wasn't going to visit him that night. Finally he rolled to his right again and slumped out of bed. Al perked up to look at him from where he sat in the opposite corner of the room.

"I can't sleep. I'm gunna take a shower."

"Okay."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Needless to say, after a day like yesterday followed by a night like last night, Ed was in no mood for morning chipper-ness. And as if his mood wasn't bad enough, he was on his way to report for duty; ie, report to Colonel Mustang…

Ed drug his feet as he trudged down the hall towards his boss' office. The Colonel was the LAST person he wanted to see. He knew that the arrogant jerk would have a few words to say to him about his accident last night. And on top of that, Ed didn't want to so much as look at the man after all the admittance that he had made to Al last night and all the realizations that came along with it in the following hours of unwelcome wakefulness. With his feelings toward Mustang that he had been suppressing/ignoring/rejecting all forcing their way to the forefront of his mind at once, feeling a little like being hit with a proverbial truck, Ed wasn't so sure he could bare to look the man in the eye.

He turned the corner into the doorway of his office. He paused just inside the room to look up at his coworkers. The first thing he noticed was the look of pure exhaustion on Fury's face as he stared absently at some mundane paperwork. That didn't surprise Ed. Knowing that he had some part in the usually obedient and alert officers current state, Ed chose not to comment. He looked around at the other occupants of the room. Breda, Falman and Havoc were all sitting at their desks and looking right back at Ed with different expressions varying from cocked eyebrows to looks of great concern.

After a few seconds of exchanging awkward stares with the other officers, Ed decided to break the silence.

"What?"

"It sure is a good thing you're late." Havoc replied.

"The Colonel was looking for your you. Actually, shouting for you was more like it." Falman added.

"Yea, he was pretty pissed off. I would watch out if I were you." Breda tacked on.

Ed ran his flesh hand through his freshly washed hair and huffed through his nose. "I'm not afraid of that big narcissist. I've had a really bad couple of days. HE's the one who should 'watch out.'"

"You wouldn't be saying that if you had seen how angry he was yourself." Fury said from where he had plopped his head down on top of his paperwork.

The younger officer looked back at Fury in silence for a moment, not really knowing what to say, before he began moving over to his desk. He slumped into his chair and looked down to find a fresh manila folder on his desk. Looking back up, he noticed that everyone was still watching him as if they expected him to burst into flames at any second. True, that was most likely what was going to happen to him at some point that day. Still, the multiple gazes were making Ed uncomfortable.

"Don't y'all have something better to do besides STARE at me?" Ed spat.

"Not really, no." Breda said.

Havoc chuckled slightly before adding, "To be honest, your eventual fate is the highlight of our day."

"You people have GOT to get a life outside of this office."

Ed turned his attention back to the folder on his desk. Upon opening it, he found what looked like a statement paper. Yes, it was statement of last night's event that he was required to sign confirming that it had been him who caused the incident in the temporary dorm facility. Ed signed the statement somewhat begrudgingly. Then he looked up at Fury who was currently struggling against gravity to lift his head off of his desk.

"Hey, Fury?"

"Hm? Yes sir?"

"I'm sorry for last night."

Fury sighed, lifting his head to speak. "It's alright, sir. It was an accident. I understand. And besides, you were able to fix everything. No harm, no foul."

"Man, I wish everyone else saw it that way."

Fury simply shrugged and forced himself upright.

"So where is that bastard, anyway?" Ed asked, looking back at the rest of the group.

"He's gone to assess the damages caused during yesterday's attack." Falman answered. "He said to tell you not to go anywhere once you got here. He was pretty avid about that part."

"Yeaaaaa. The higher ups want me to fix as much of the damage as possible. And no doubt the Colonel wants to have a few words with me about last night."

"Maybe not 'words.'" Havoc added, "From the looks of it, he wants to pummel you into the dirt."

"Psh. He can try."

**Bad Temper:** OKAY! So if you're STILL with me, you rock for being so patient. Just as a slight spoiler, the next chapter is going to be AWESOME! (in comparison to the previous chapters.) It will be the turning point for this drawn-out oneshot. And it will be a bit longer than my other chapters. I am told that the chapters are too short anyway, so perhaps that will be an improvement. Please R&R and tell me what you think so far!


	10. Chapter 10

**Bad Temper:** Guess what I've goooot! That's right! It's Chapter 10! Wooooooo!

**Chapter 10**

Assessing the damages had not been all that difficult in it self. It was the accompaniment of two of the higher-ups that was unusually tiresome. He was relieved when the two relatively older men branched off at a fork in the sidewalk on the way back. They were going to the mess hall for lunch and Mustang was returning to his office in the main building. With the two of them finally gone the air was clear of their mundane elderly business banter.

As he rounded the corner towards the courtyard entrance to the main building of the Central Command Center, Mustang's mind was now able to roam freely and it began to once again journey back to yesterday, reminding him of what happened the day before to cause all of this.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Mustang immediately alerted Fullmetal to the bomb strapped to the old man under his shirt. His voice was nearly frantic.

The two of them backed up in unison, reassessing their situation with the new danger factored in. As if on cue, the elderly extremist produced a small black box with a comically large red button on it and a coiled wire leading down to his waist where it connected with the TNT.

The human bomb began jabbering about his theories once again, while brandishing his advantage in his right hand. Which was a mistake. Holding it up in the open air opened the object up to a clear shot. It took Hawkeye little effort to center the remote in her scope and fire. Just like that the thing was shattered to bits.

As soon as the advantage had been neutralized, Ed launched at him again. His sleek arm-sward pierced the air relentlessly and strings of taunting obscenities flew form his toothy grin.

Mustang had no option but to watch at this point. He was dying to take a shot at the damn old man, and he was also terrified of there being any kind of mishap that could possibly spark the TNT. The thought of Edward being blown to bits terrified him. But being the Flame Alchemist, he was rendered pretty much useless as long as Edward or any other allies were anywhere near that fucking human bomb. He fisted his hands in an attempt to not snap his fingers.

Grunts and shouts and the sounds of bone-crushing punches permeated the air for the next few minutes as Ed chased and beat the extremist. The nearby marshals even began to cheer on the overzealous alchemist.

"Dammit, don't incourage the boy." Mustang grumbled to himself. "Fullmetal! Be careful! That bomb on him is still extremely volatile!"

"Huh?" Ed turned his head at the sound of Mustang's advice. But one second was all it took for the adrenaline-enraged old man to punch the kid square in the chest and send him flying. Mustang instinctively lifted his right hand, taking a step forward in his readiness to set the man aflame. But he held himself back.

"I've had enough of this asshole! He's a damn terrorist! FULLMETAL! Get yourself away from him!"

Ed didn't hear his boss. Or rather he ignored him. He jumped back to his feet and ran for the old man yet again but he wasn't quick enough. Mustang had already run over to him and grabbed him by the jacket, yanking him back hard enough to cause the boy to topple over backwards.

"Back up, Ed! It's my turn."

Mustang finally snapped (so to speak) and sent a ball of fire hurdling towards the human bomb. Strangely enough, the old man ran from the fire as if he were afraid to die despite the TNT strapped to his waist.

The old man was growing tired as he dodged the flames desperately. Mustang used the directionality of his shots to herd the scrambling man away from the other officers as he slowly drew closer, preparing to detonate him once he had him where he wanted him.

Suddenly the man ducked under one of Mustang's flames and clapped his hands together, bringing together the two halves of a basic alchemy array tattooed on either palm. He dropped to his knees and slapped the ground, sending a slew of broken down gravel raging towards Mustang. The Colonel turned his right shoulder and tried to shield his eyes with his arm.

Mustang growled through his grinding teeth. He immediately swung his arm up to snap his fingers at the damn old man through his blurred vision.

But through his anger and disorientation, he hadn't noticed the excitable young blond running towards the man - yet again - at that exact moment, clapping his hands together in preparation for a transmutation.

Mustang hadn't heard the boy's battle cry in time to stop himself from igniting the sparks from his snap.

The flames roared forward like some kind of animate beast and met with the TNT under the terrorist's shirt and the bomb detonated. The massive explosion produced a strong concussion that sent people and debris flying. But Ed had been closer to the explosion than the others and was caught by the fire and cinder before being hurdled to the ground.

"ED!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

By now, the Colonel had made it to the top floor, turning in to the main hall that led to his office.

Maybe if the damn kid weren't so reckless he wouldn't get himself into situations like he had been in yesterday and last night. He was unsure of what to do. He wanted to protect the damn brat from himself and scream obscenities at him at the same time.

The Colonel looked up from his thoughts and was perplexed by the sound of laughing as he turned into the office door. He took a moment to look about the larger community-office. His underlings had all risen from their desks as if to wander off to the mess hall. But they were all too busy laughing and slapping their knees or their desks to actually leave for lunch. Tracing the source of their entertainment with a steel gaze, Mustang found himself looking at Fullmetal whom had what looked like a plush doll of… him.

Fullmetal held the doll in his metal hand, making it dance about on his desk. In a mock Mustang voice he made the doll sing about dogs, and mini skirts, and how awesome he was.

With the occupants of the room too caught up in hysterics to notice the boss' presence, Mustang was able to stand and observe this absurd insubordination for a couple of minutes. As Fullmetal's antics carried on, Mustang could feel a vain on his forehead throbbing so hard it could almost burst. His brow twitched and a snarl of disapproval quivered at the corners of his mouth.

Mustang couldn't take any more of this.

"FULLMETAL!" he barked furiously.

All the men, including the blonde ducked their heads like startled dogs. The boss could see Fullmetal's face pale a few shades. And the Mustang plushy fell from his hand.

"In my office!"

Fullmetal gulped, trying to get up but finding that his body would rather not.

"Now!" Mustang shouted as he headed that way himself.

The younger alchemist quickly found the ability to move again and got up from his desk. But before following he clapped his hands together and transmuted his plushy back to its original form, which turned out to be one of Ed's clunky boots. After slipping it back on he trotted in after Mustang knowing that if he made the outraged man wait any longer, he would most likely be reduced to bacon.

When he entered the Colonel's pristine office, he found his boss already sitting behind his desk, waiting for him with a not-so-encouraging scowl on his face.

The older alchemist leaned back in his large leather chair, his hands laced together before him.

"Shut the door, Fullmetal."

Fullmetal obeyed.

"Sit down."

Fullmetal obeyed again albeit reluctantly. He sidled over to the couch and sat down, keeping his eyes locked on the colonel.

"No doubt you already know about the report that I found on my desk this morning."

Fullmetal nodded.

"I trust you got one just like it on your desk as well."

Fullmetal nodded again.

"Then I assume you know why I've asked you in here."

"Actually no," Edward replied trying hard to sound as brave and indignant as ever. "I fixed everything good as new. So I don't see the problem."

Mustang 'hmphed' and stood abruptly, pushing his chair back. He walked over to the blonde teen and held out his hand, palm up.

The teen jerked back in response to the quick motion. He looked at the offending hand and then back up at his boss with a cocked eyebrow.

"Hand them over, Fullmetal."

"Hand what over?"

"You know damn well what."

The teen poked out his bottom lip and shrugged his shoulders, creating that all around 'I dunno' look. Mustang was right, he did know what the man wanted, but he'd be damned if he let the man get what he wanted. After the sucky time he had been having, he figured it would be fair to give someone else a hard time - preferably someone who always gave him a hard time.

"The GLOVES you brat! Give me the gloves!"

"Oh yeaaaa! Your gloves! Kay, hang on a sec let me just – oh wait, I DON'T HAVE THEM!"

"Those are MY gloves, Fullmetal! I demand to have them back!"

"Well gee, I'd love to hand them over if it would get you to shut the hell up," the belligerent teen retorted, "but like I said, I don't have them!" He gestured to himself with his two bare hands, leaned back on the couch with his legs stretched out, putting him self on display to make a point. And he did have a point. All he wore was his grey sweat pants and white t-shirt and his big clunky boots.

After giving the boy a once over, the Colonel realized, to his disappointment, that the kid was right. There was no reason for him to wear the gloves with his arms fully exposed by that noticeably snug short-sleeved T-shirt that hugged his muscular chest and biceps rather nicely.

Colonel Mustang had to shake that last detail from his head. This wasn't the time for thoughts like that. He took a deep breath, ran a hand over his face and groaned.

Edward's gaze followed the Colonel as he walked back to his desk and flopped back into his chair.

"I don't see what the big deal is. I fixed all the damages. That building is probably in better condition now than-"

"That's not the point, Fullmetal. Knowing you, you'd probably have found some other way of nearly destroying an entire building without my gloves."

Edward swung his legs onto the couch and laid his head down on the armrest. He let out an overly exasperated sigh to demonstrate his disinterest in what his boss had to say.

"It's the principal of the matter, dammit! I loaned you those gloves out of kindness and –"

"You said that you owed it to me." Edward replied lazily.

"Shut up and listen." Mustang barked. Then he took on a more lecturely tone, looking down as his paperwork as he spoke. "I specifically told you NOT to play around with my gloves. But you didn't listen. You blatantly disobeyed me, which is bad enough, but you also put yourself in danger. You put everyone in that building in danger." Mustang leaned his brow on the tips of his thumb and middle finger. "Not only that but in an isolated incident such as this, you could be held entirely responsible. You could be fined and suspended without pay. I am responsible for you as your commanding officer, which means I can be penalized for your actions as well, ESPECIALLY when the key implement to the incident was MY gloves. So it all comes back to the principle of it."

Mustang took a break from his speech and looked up at Edward. Not surprisingly, the teen had fallen asleep sprawled out on his couch. That would explain the unusual silence. He sighed and put his hands on his desk, heaving him self up from his chair and walked over to Ed.

It was understandable he supposed. The boy hadn't been having the best time of his life as of lately. After being beaten and burned and then not getting any sleep last night it was understandable that he would pass out at some point. Looking down at him, the Colonel couldn't help but notice how much the boy had grown. He was a young man now and it could be seen in the way his features had squared out slightly, the way the faint blonde peach fuzz barely created a shadow on his chin, and the way his lanky limbs sprawled out along the couch accentuating their new found length. Although, he was still relatively short in comparison to most men.

Despite the appeal of the thin, snug T-shirt that he wore, Mustang decided that Ed didn't need to be so exposed. He would get cold. So he shrugged off his uniform jacket and draped it over the young man and, without thinking, he stretched out a hand to brush the silky blonde bangs from his face.

"Might as well get some rest while you can. You've got to fix up a couple things in a few hours."

Mustang returned to his desk and continued his paperwork.

**Bad Temper:** Alrighty! R&R! The more reviews I get, the more slash YOU get! XD


	11. Chapter 11

**Bad Temper:** WOW! This one took for EVER! Sorry about the rediculous wait everyone! D: My daddy came to visit so I was spending the week with him and I just started my new job. i.e. a lot of stuff has been going on and I haven't had time to write until now. Technically, I still don't. But I love my readers so Imma try anyway! This chapter gave me hell too. So I REALLY hope you enjoy it! R&R pretty please!

**Chapter 11**

"Colonel, are you ready to – "

"Shhh." Mustang hushed Riza as she came through the door to his office. When he was met with a brief look of confusion, he pointed over to the couch where Edward was still sprawled out, snoring lightly. He had been there for about an hour now, catching up on his sleep. "Give him another thirty minutes, Hawkeye. The boy's had a rough night."

Riza nodded although she was still slightly perplexed by Mustang's allowing of such insubordination. She knew the colonel always had a soft spot for the boy, so she simply owned it to that fact. Besides, it wasn't like Colonel Mustang wasn't guilty of that sort of thing himself.

Walking over to her boss' desk, she whispered quietly, "The brigadier is getting ancy. He is eager to see to it that Mister Fullmetal fixes the damages."

Mustang nodded. "Then he'll have to wait. An alchemist shouldn't perform any high-grade alchemy without proper rest – and nourishment for that matter. Hawkeye, would you please run to the mess hall before they close and grab him a bite to eat for when he wakes up?"

Riza looked over her shoulder at the young man slouched across the couch with what could only be Mustang's jacket (Seeing as how Mustang wasn't wearing his) draped over him. She looked back at her boss. "Of course sir. Any preferences?"

"Something quick and easy I suppose. A sandwich."

"Yes sir."

Mustang's Second Lieutenant turned quick on her heel and was gone from the office in a second. The door clicked shut behind her creating a noise loud enough, apparently, to cause the dozing alchemist to fidget on the couch. Mustang looked over at him. He seemed to be mumbling something in his sleep and Mustang found him self straining to hear.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Oblivion was always the first word that came to his mind when he came here. He stood in between the gates, surrounded by an endless, stark-whit, oblivion.

Just six inches in front of him was the hard, dark, cold surface of the oversized gate. He tilted his head back trying to gather its foreboding expanse into his vision.

"Brother?"

Edward whirled around at the sound of Al's meek voice. There he was, sitting mere inches from the other gate, twisting his head and shoulders to look at him.

"Al?" Edward's voice sounded just as meek as his brother's. It was hard to believe. But he knew it was true. His brother's body sat idly at the gate, waiting for him, feeding from him, estranged from him year after year. His body was so malnourished that Edward could count every one of his vertebrae, his skin stuck to every bone and his pelvic bones jutted out from his hip joints so harshly that it looked as if they could break through the pallid skin at the slightest movement.

After becoming so accustomed to having his brother speak to him through a large, solid suit of armor, it was hard to believe that this frail thing, sitting at the gate was indeed his brother… well part of him at least.

The sight tore at Ed's heart. How could he let this happen? How could he have abandoned his brother at the gate, let him starve, almost forget what he really looked like? Al wasn't a big scary suit of armor. He was this. He had done this to his own brother.

Edward's mouth pulled back at the corners, bearing his chattering teeth. He struggled to keep his eyes open but he could barely see his little brother through the shimmering tears.

"Can I come home now, Brother?"

"Al…" Ed's voice cracked and his tears streamed down his face. He ran from his gate to Al's and dropped heavily to his knees, making a clanking sound when his automail knee struck the marble-like floor of the oblivion. "Alphonse! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!" He sniffled and hiccupped and stared at the floor letting his tears fall freely and plop into small puddles. He was ashamed of his current blithering state and he was ashamed of what he had reduced his brother to. Between the two, he didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes.

"It's okay, Brother."

"No it's not!" Ed all but screeched, punching the floor with his automail fist. "I'm the one who did this to you and I'm the one who's going to fix it."

"I know."

"I WILL fix this, Al! I haven't forgotten about you! Every time I close my eyes I can see you. I'll bring you home to your soul. And I'll do it SOON! Really soon!"

"I know."

Edward fell quiet save for his sniffling. He sat back on his bottom and dried his face with the back of his arm. Finally he turned his eyes up to his brother. What he saw was surprising. Al looked genuinely happy. His pale lips were drawn back into a warm smile and his eyes squinted slightly, causing the ashen skin to wrinkle a bit at their corners. Could a body with no soul be happy? Although the boy looked nearly dead, physically, his eyes seemed to gleam with hope and absolute trust.

"Al…"

"I trust you, brother."

"But… How! How can you trust me after what I've done to you?"

His brother just kept smiling, cocking his head slightly. "Because you're true."

Edward just sat still and stared at his brother in silence for a minute. True? That seamed like an odd thing to say. But Ed never doubted his brother – body or soul. The two of them sat in silence for a while after that, simply enjoying each other's company. And then Ed took in a cool deep breath, knowing that his time in this REM universe would be drawing to an end shortly.

"Alphonse," he began, putting his hands on his little brother's frail shoulders. "We're getting close. We have Doctor Marco helping us now. He's a great guy and he's made leaps and bounds in his research for the Philosopher's Stone. (You'll know him once you get back home.) And once every two weeks, me and Al – I mean – your soul – I mean – your counter part…" Al giggled softly. "Anyway," Ed shook his head, "we go to help him for a couple days at a time. We're coming very close to the answer. VERY close! We make progress every time we visit. And Marco seems very confidant. I don't know how to bring you home yet, Al. But I PROMISE! I promise that I will be back soon with the knowledge and the means to bring you back. You have my undying word!"

"I'll be here." Al replied with a smile and the slightest hint of sarcasm.

"Al." Ed felt his heart melt at Al's faint attempt at humor. Was a body without a soul really capable of having a sense of humor too?

"I can tell it will be soon. I can feel it. I have faith in you, Ed."

"Al." Ed said again, feeling the tears returning but not bothering to fight them. "I love you." He could feel his hold on this realm slipping, fading. It slowly shifted and began to disperse to the consistency of something akin to smoke.

"Edward…" came a deeper and less frail voice.

The smoke burned his eyes and filled his lungs, making him choke. But despite his difficulty breathing he called for his brother. Every time he left one of these dreams he felt this unrelenting sense of dread. He always feared that he would never get back to this place. That he would never succeed in saving his little brother, that he would never see him again. He screamed Al's name despite the burning sensation of the smoke that made his throat tighten and made his eyes water.

"ALLL!"

"Edward!" The voice came again, sterner this time.

Ed knew that voice. He paused in his frantic shouting to listen for it again, blinking away his tears in an attempt to see.

"Edward!"

He turned in search of the source for the voice.

"Edward! Wake up!"

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Edward shot up from where he was laying on the couch, making a raspy gasping sound as he sucked in air. His colonel had to lean back abruptly to dodge the young man's sudden movement. He sat stiff, clutching the jacket in his lap, and gasping for air. There was a thin film of sweat chilling his skin and his cheeks were dampened with the recent tears.

The colonel was still kneeled next to him, one hand on his knee and the other pressed firmly on Edward's back offering the fraught teen a sense of support.

"Edward?"

There was that voice again. He turned his head slowly to find himself face to face with his boss. The deep onyx eyes that stared back at him seemed to express a deep concern. He quickly averted his own eyes, once again ashamed of his current state.

Edward knew that what he had just experienced was only a dream. He had grown accustomed to them and he had grown to take them all very seriously, as if they were real. As far as he was concerned they were. The only problem being that having such lucid dreams often lead to outward enactments of his emotions and actions that occurred within them. Al had often narrated his side of his dreams word for word and told him that he had been talking in his sleep.

_Great, _Edward thought, _I had to go and fall asleep in the damn Colonel's office of all places. This is gunna bite._

He was mortified. Why did this have to happen in front of the one man who's opinion mattered most (second only to his brother). What was he gunna think of him now? No doubt he'd have some kind of irritating, condescending comments about this later. He took a deep breath and heaved out a shaky sigh, using the back of his left hand to pad at his damp tear-swollen eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"That's a lie."

"Well what do you wanna hear? I want my mommy? Fuck you. I just had a bad dream. It happens." In his frustration Edward shrugged Mustang's hand off of his back.

Mustang simply sat in silence and watched his subordinate with alert eyes that darted around Edward's face, taking in all the classic tellers of anxiety. He understood that Edward didn't want people to view him as week or vulnerable, so he didn't pursue the subject any further. But he wondered if the kid had anyone to talk to, any way of handling it. He supposed that his little brother provided some of that but from what he knew of the brothers, it was Al who was the source of a lot of Ed's guilt and stress. That was made apparent by his behavior and by instances such as this – his dreams.

What Mustang wouldn't give to hold the blonde in his arms at night, stroke his hair, and whisper in his ear all the things he'd need to hear. How he would love to protect the restless young man from his own dreams and self inflicted guilt.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

"Not much."

"What?"

"Well it's just that you're so short that there's not much to-"

"Shuddup you bastard! I'm not short! In fact I've gotten taller! I'm even having Winry visit cus-"

"_There's_ the Fullmetal I know." Mustang chuckled as he snatched his uniform jacket from Edward's lap and stood up, "Calm down."

The younger alchemist huffed and flopped back down onto the couch. "Jerk."

"Hawkeye will be back in a couple minutes with some food."

"Huh?"

"My bet is that you haven't eaten today. And we need you in tip-top shape if you're going to get any fixing done. The head honchos are getting impatient."

"Yea. I guess I am kinda hungry." As if to make a point, Ed's stomach rumbled unusually loudly.

A few minutes later, Riza showed up with a cold cut sandwich and a glass of orange juice. The food was gone within what seamed like seconds. Then Riza hurried the two men off to meet with the Brigadier in the lobby.

Fixing the damages was rather effortless for the talented Fullmetal and the Brigadier was quite impressed, promising to pass his good recommendations on to further higher-ups. Edward could really care less about such things. As long as he was here at Central working at his boss' side and had all the resources he needed to research the means to regain Al's body, he was quite content.

As the four of them stood about looking up at the residential dorm building that had just been returned to its normal state, Edward shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweat pants. In the left pocket were the gloves that had caused him so much lack of sleep. For some reason he had denied Mustang the return of them, lying to him and telling them that they were still in his room and not on him. Why he had done so, he wasn't sure. He simply didn't feel like giving them up. He fiddled with the rough, dry fabric in his pocket as he stood off to the side tuning out the meaningless banter that went on between the Colonel and the Brigadier.

"Well Fullmetal,"

Edward nearly jumped at the rough tenor of the old Brigadier's voice. He looked up to suddenly notice the man standing just about two feet in front of him. "Uh yea?"

"Between the terrorist and the repairs that you have been generous enough to perform today, you've done some exceptional work. All the military will have to cover is some replanting of the garden and a couple trees. Excelent work, boy."

"Boy?"

The old man patted him on the shoulder and gave him a mandatory smile before turning to Mustang, requesting a report on the improvements, saying farewell and then getting into a nearby vehicle and departing.

With the Brigadier gone, Mustang, Riza and Edward returned to the office to continue their workday.

"Second Luitenent Hawkeye, would you please draw up a report of the notes that the Brigadier has made for today?"

"Yes sir." Riza took the said notes and left Colonel Mustang's office. Leaving the two men standing alone in the room.

"So, Fullmetal. You've done some good work."

"Duh." Edward replied with a sarcastic smirk.

"Say, where has that brother of yours been today?"

"Oh he left at noon today to go pick up Winry. She's coming over to adjust my automail. I've outgrown it a little."

"Huh. Shocking."

"Don't be such an asshole, Colonel!" Edward shouted, brandishing a metal fist at his boss. He sighed. "Anyway, now that you mention it, they should be here by now. What time is it?"

"Hm." He pulled out his pocket watch. "About a quarter of three."

"Wah really! Dammit they're already here by now! If I keep them waiting any longer I'll end up with a wrench lodged in my forehead!"

"I see. Well considering what you've accomplished today, I think you've redeemed yourself well enough. I suppose I can let you go early. (Even if you did get here late and sleep on the job)."

"Kay thanks bye!" Edward yipped as he turned to dash out of the room. But he was brought up short when he felt a strong hand grab his left wrist. "What the – hey! What's the deal? You said I could go."

"Fullmetal…"

"Hm?" the colonel's muted tone spurred a slight note of concern in him.

"Your dreams."

"Aw come on, Colonel. Not this again. I'm in a hurry." Edward attempted to pull free from the man's grip, but Mustang only tightened it and he yanked him back, causing Ed to stumble into his boss.

In that instant, the young, blond prodigy was overwhelmed with the warmth of the strong, muscled chest pressed against him and the simple scent of linen mixed with the faintest trace of a metallic substance, like the kind used to make flints. Immediately his face went red-hot and his ears crimson. His heart battered madly against his sternum and his mind scattered in all directions. He almost didn't hear his boss' words through the sound of his own blood rushing through his head.

"I've heard about your nightmares. I know that you suffer when you sleep. And I know there's little I can offer you in solace. But you need to remember that your brother loves you and that you and Doctor Marco are making remarkable progress. Al will be normal soon. I know it. But until then you need to find somebody to talk to. And I want you to know that I'm here for you. Despite what you might think of me, I care about you and I'm willing drop everything if you need me."

As Colonel Mustang finished what he had to say, he patted Edward lightly on the back in a somewhat awkward attempt at comforting him.

Once he was released from the Colonel's sudden grip, Edward muttered a quick, "Um. Thanks," before dashing from the room in a flustered mess, the whole time keeping his face down so as not to let Mustang see the deep flush of his cheeks.

Though Mustang had known the blonde to be somewhat emotional in the past, he had steadily grown out of his episodes with his coming of age. So it struck him as odd to see Edward respond to his attempt at kindness in such a hushed and yet flustered way. And, all of that aside, the deep blush that he had glimpsed as Edward turned into the light of the conjoining office seemed out of place in this context. Had he upset the blonde? Or was there something else bothering him?

**Bad Temper:** MAJOR SPOILER FOR MY NEXT CHAPTER! The SMEXUAL part of my fic will FINALLY start in Chapter 12. So thank you everyone who has been reading patiently. I know it's taken me way too long to get to this part, so I thought I'd let you know before ya got fed up and stopped reading. ^_^ Are and are! :P


	12. Chapter 12

**Bad Temper: **YESSS! The juicy stuff is finally here! Hope you enjoy it! Please tell me what you think when you R&R!

**Chapter 12**

From four to six that evening, Ed's day had gone from awkward to truly sucking. Having his automail adjusted wasn't painful, per say. Rather it was extremely uncomfortable. The changes in the tension of his springs and rods within his mechanical arm pulled and pushed at the muscles that they were attached to. He felt pressure, pinches and aches. It felt similar to having a large needle stuck deep in your skin – it didn't hurt, but it ached and felt weird as hell.

Edward's discomfort showed itself briefly in the form of slight facial twinges now and then. But the adjustments were only ticklish in comparison to actually attaching anything.

On top of all that, where there were adjustments to be made, there was Winry… with a wrench. Ed had been lucky enough to dodge said wrench, but he hadn't been anticipating the entire freaking toolbox.

He adored his mechanic. She was caring, thoughtful, and always more concerned with his metal parts than he ever was. Although, she could be a tad bit overzealous about it at times.

As of the past year or so, Edward had noticed that his little brother had grown very fond of her. More so than usual, that is. Whenever she came around he acted eager and followed her about closely, enamored by every word she had to say. On her past few visits to adjust Ed's arm and leg, he had paid such close attention to her that he learned a bit about automail every time. And while she was gone, he would sometimes study trade books on the subject in between alchemy research. As far as Ed was concerned, Al was smitten with the girl. Having seen the way his brother leaned his large, steal frame close over Winry's shoulder, hanging on her every word as she explained what she was doing to Ed's knee joint, Edward couldn't help but smile. He could only hope that the two would eventually find happiness in each other one day. They were perfect for each other.

As for him…

Edward leaned his head back on the loveseat as his thoughts drifted off to other things. Winry had made her way down to his ankle joints, which bothered him considerably less being so much farther away from the leg it was attached to. The slight tugs and pulls on what was left of his thigh muscles were easy to ignore.

Mustang's words of comfort from earlier that day began to repeat themselves over and over in Ed's head. His own thoughts rattled about incoherently in his skull, the words all jumbled up and unable to form a complete question. Maybe it was because he didn't want to ask the questions. Maybe he was afraid of what the answers might be. But all things aside, it was downright unusual for the Colonel to say something so… endearing. In fact, before that… occurrence, Mustang hadn't so much as touched him in all the years that they'd known each other. The closest they had ever gotten to that was their duel, back when he was only twelve years old. Damn, that was five years ago.

So why the sudden change? Mustang had been in his life all these years, had seen him go through hell and back, had seen him cry out his very soul. He'd been there for everything, and aside from a few words of wisdom, he had never made a gesture as personal as he had today. And it wasn't even something devastating like death or suffering. Ed had just had a crappy couple of days. No big deal.

"What the hell?" he muttered softly to himself.

"Ed?"

"Hm?"

"Hellooooo? Earth to Edward!" Winry waved a hand in front of his face from where she kneeled on the ground. She giggled. "Where have you been Edward?"

"Wha – Oh. I was just thinking about some stuff. Sorry."

"What kind of stuff?"

Edward shrugged. "I dunno."

Winry huffed at Ed's typical attempt to avert her from the subject. She snapped the panel on top of his metal foot shut and screwed it in place. Then slapping her knees, she stood up, "There. All done."

Edward stood as well and shifted his wait from flesh to metal to flesh to metal and then took a couple steps, feeling out the new adjustments.

"Wow it feels great! Perfect work as always, Winry."

"Well of course!" Winry preened with her hands on her hips.

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Crisp rays of yellow afternoon sunlight peered in through the cracks of the blinds.

Edward squinted his eyes against it, reluctant to wake up for the day. After such a rough couple of days he had decided to try his luck staying in bed where nothing could go wrong. Besides, today was his day off and he'd like a little extra rest.

Just as he was rolling over to nestle back into his pillow, the door to his quiet room swung open and bashed against the wall. Edward leapt up into a near crouching position on his bed, ready to lunge at the intruder.

"Good mooooooorning! How are my boys doing!"

"Good morning, Winry!" Al chimed.

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

The two others turned to Ed who was sitting Indian-style on his bed and waving his fists in the air, furiously.

"Can't a guy get some freaking rest for ONCE!"

"But Edwaaard!" Winry wined and wiggled her hips anxiously, "you promised me when you called that you would take me shopping! And I have to leave tomorrow morning. I won't get another chance! You gotta get up. You gottaaaa!"

"Alright, ALRIGHT!" Ed shouted, holding his hands up at her. "Al, come here."

"What is it brother?"

Edward leaned over the edge of his bed and dug through the drawer of his nightstand for something. He pulled out his wallet and handed it to his brother. "Here. Take this and go take Winry out for a day on the town. I'll meet y'all at the mess hall for dinner."

"What? But don't you wanna come too?"

"Nah. I just want to get some rest. And to be honest, I could use a little alone time. It's been a rough couple of days. You of all people would know, Al."

"Heh. Yea. I guess I understand."

"Now you take Winry out to have some fun. I'm going to sleep a little more." Ed said as he began pulling the covers back over lap. "And Winry!"

"Uh, yes Ed?"

"Don't go running me into irreparable debt. Have some moderation, okay?"

Winry blushed and bowed her head, remembering her last spending spree and how livid Ed had been once he saw the receipt she had rung up at one of the trade stores.

"Okay."

Edward flopped back down onto the bed, rolled onto his stomach and tucked his arms under his pillow. His brother and his mechanic stood in the doorway looking at him seeming almost curious.

"Are you sure – " Al started, but Ed cut him off.

"Why are you still here! Go on! I'll see you at dinner."

"Um ok," the two said in unison and scampered out of the room. His little brother added one last chipper goodbye before shutting the door behind him. From the other side of the door Ed could already hear Al's chipper chattering as the two headed down the hall.

"Finally!" Ed muttered to himself and burrowed his face into his pillow. He sighed into its linen case, the heat of his breath becoming trapped in the fabric and warming his face. His eyelids were heavy and seemed to draw themselves closed on their own accord. But Ed was okay with that as long as he could get a little extra sleep.

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About forty minutes later Ed roused from his sleep with a sharp intake of breath and his eyes flew open. He could feel his face growing hotter with every passing second as the images from his dreams came surging into his conscious mind.

_How on earth could I dream of a thing like that? Mustang would never… __**I **__would never… Well, yea maybe I would (in a universe where I had experience with men and Mustang was actually into me). But that'll never happen…_

When Ed shifted to turn onto his back, the rub of the fabric against his groin made him painfully aware of the throbbing ache of his livelihood and the swirling pool of heat in his lower belly.

Edward groaned and rolled the rest of the way onto his back. His hardened member stood upright, creating a tent-like effect to his boxers. He lifted his head to glance down at the offending organ that so shamelessly demanded his attention then let his had fall back into his pillow, heaving out another disgruntled groan.

_So much for a little extra sleep. _

The aroused blonde resigned to spending his alone time in a different manner. He drew up one knee and reached down with his left hand sliding it deftly beneath the cotton of his boxers. When the warm skin of his fingers caressed the silk-like skin of his firm manhood, he instantly felt shivers shoot up inside his body. He let out a low slow breath and closed his eyes. And as soon as his eyes were shut, there it was again - that image from his dreams - that image of Mustang's smooth masculine face just inches from him, those sharp onyx colored eyes boring into him as he… moved.

Edward's imagination began spiraling out from there. As his hand glided slowly along his member he imagined what it might feel like to be filled by the famous Flame Alchemist. He wondered what it would feel like to have those lips pressed against his. He wondered what it would feel like to have those gloved hands move across his bare skin…

At that last thought, Ed paused in his self-gratification and opened his eyes. He turned his head to the right to look at the two gloves set neatly on top of each other next to the lamp on his nightstand.

_I wonder…_

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Lunch at the mess hall had been mediocre at best. Same as always. Colonel Mustang walked along the hallway towards his office with what was left of his sub in one hand and a file in the other. He munched on his sandwich and skimmed over the file in hand as he walked, in an attempt to catch up on some paperwork.

He turned into the main office that led to his and was met with his Second Lieutenant who was promptly at his side as usual.

"Sir."

"Hm?" Mustang's acknowledgement was a bit muffled by the mouth full of sandwich.

"Your package has arrived. I left it on your desk."

Mustang gulped down his mouth full. "Excellent. Thank you Second Lieutenant."

"Of course, Sir."

Mustang continued into his office and set down his file and the last bit of his sandwich in its wax paper wrapper. On the left corner of his desk was the aforementioned package. A 4''x4'' box with a delivery sticker that indicated that it contained a single pair of medium sized gloves.

"Hawk Eye. Fullmetal is off duty today, is he not?"

"Yes sir."

"Well then, I suppose I'll just take this to him myself."

"But sir, what about your –"

"My sandwich? You can finish it if you really want. But if it were me I'd just throw it a –"

"No, Colonel Mustang. I was referring to your paper work."

"Oh that?" Mustang glanced over his shoulder at the moderately sized stack then shrugged. "I won't take long. Besides, it's not like it's going anywhere."

Hawkeye sighed at her boss' frivolous yet undisputable use of common logic.

"Would you please take any messages while I'm gone. This won't be but a few minutes."

"Yes sir."

"Wonderful. Be back in a bit." The Colonel waved briefly at his subordinate as he left the office with his token for the Fullmetal Alchemist tucked safely in the crook of his arm.

He found his footsteps to be rather brisk as he nearly trotted to the dorms where he would find his favorite little state alchemist. Being that the Command Center was such a large facility, it still took nearly ten minutes of Mustang's brisk walking to get him to the temporary dorms. Upon arriving in that particular hallway, the Colonel took notice at how it looked as if it had never been demolished two days ago. In fact it looked better than before. Mustang inwardly applauded Edward as he approached the door to his respective room.

Holding the box firmly in one hand, Mustang used his free hand to give the door a couple hefty knocks. Upon doing so, it appeared that the door was not latched all the way and it gave a little under the light impact of the Colonel's knocks.

"Odd." The Colonel whispered to himself and instinctively pushed the door open to investigate the Fullmetal's room, suspecting that he would either find the two brothers, or that it would be empty. But neither of those were the case. What he DID find was much MUCH more shocking.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the left corner of the room, following the sound of heavy breathing and what sounded like someone whispering his name. What Colonel Mustang saw was the Fullmetal Alchemist stark naked on his bed, his head leaned back, his eyes half lidded, his skin flushed, his chest rising and falling with every ragged breath. He could very blatantly see the thick throbbing member in his hand and… wait… his hands…

"ARE THOSE MY GLOVES!"

Edward, who had been too preoccupied with his mind-blowing fantasies to notice any of this commotion up until now, suddenly seemed to snap to. His head whirled to face Mustang's dumbfounded expression and his eyes widened as realization very visibly struck him.

"C-c-colonel!" Then something in him snapped. "WHAT THE HELL! GET OUT OF HERE YOU PERVERT!" Edward screeched as he sat up and snatched the covers over himself.

The small package was quickly forgotten and dropped to the floor as the flabbergasted Colonel took a couple quick steps backwards back into the hall and slammed the door shut in front of him just in time to avoid the desk lamp that had been hurled in his direction.

His eyes felt as if they were going to pop right out of their sockets. His eyebrows felt as if they were trying to switch places. And his heart was beating so hard and fast that it felt as if it was about to explode. Without pause, Mustang turned on his heel and headed back in the direction he had come. His strides were long and tense and carried him quickly down the halls. And although he looked straight ahead and walked as if he could see where he was headed, his vision was entirely blocked off by the unbelievable images of what he had just seen.

Edward had been sprawled out on his bed, arched a bit to the side. Both of his knees were bent slightly and his head was tossed back into his pillow. His ears and his cheeks were flushed and his chest dappled slightly with the same effect. The afternoon light coming through the blinds had given his smooth skin a bronzed glow and made his hair and automail glisten like pure gold. His metal hand was roaming over his chest, while his flesh one administered gliding strokes over his thick, reddened cock.

To his astonishment, Mustang realized that his face was burning hot as fire. He couldn't remember the last time he'd blushed over anything. And yet here he was blushing furiously over this pipsqueak - this slender, muscular, radiant fucking pipsqueak. GATES he looked sexy! Mustang slapped his face with both his hands and then ran them through his jet-black hair.

And to top it all off… Mustang held his hands in his tousled hair as he continued to stare forward while he walked. To top it ALL OFF, the damn brat had been wearing HIS gloves. His famous Flame Alchemy gloves! He wore them while he ran his hands over his warm, tan skin. He wore them while he slowly pumped that perfect cock… Gates, how he WISHED those had been HIS OWN hands in those gloves as they ravaged that perfect body…

Mustang slowed to a stop where he was now half way up the staircase to the second floor.

_What if that was the point? What if the purpose of the gloves was to… No… Really?_

Mustang shook his head trying to jar the idea loose from his brain. But it wouldn't budge. He refused to make any assumptions (especially ones as outstanding as that) but all the signs pointed indisputably to that one conclusion.

He hadn't been wearing anything else but the gloves. And they are made from a rough flint material, the exact opposite of the common preference for lotion. People would normally take them off for something like that, whether they were made of flint or cotton or what have you… So why else would Ed… The Fullmetal Alchemist…

Mustang shook his head again. "Dammit!" He growled as he continued up the stairs. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to compose him self.

It was just wishful thinking after all…

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"SON OF A BITCH!" Edward howled after his lamp had shattered against the door. He sat up on his bed, his blood pounding through his head so hard it was the only thing he could hear.

"Great!" he huffed. "This is just fucking GREAT!" He got out of bed and proceeded to ball up his sheets and chuck them across the room and then kick over a chair. "First the explosion, then the dorms, and then I FINALLY get a day off I can't sleep at all and NOW THIS!"

From the hall, neighbors and passers by could hear banging and shouting coming from the Elrics' room. However, this didn't surprise anyone who knew the Elrics.

Edward stormed into his bathroom. As he reached for the shower knobs he saw the gloves still on his hand. "Dammit." His hands were visibly shaking from the awful encounter making it difficult to remove them. After violently prying them from his hands, he threw them on the ground and turned the shower knob and stomped into the shower.

_Of all the people who could've walked in on me, why did it have to be HIM! What the hell was he doing here! For Gate's sake, why did I have to have been wearing the gloves? What was I THINKING!_

"Damn it all." Edward muttered. He stood with his head bowed under the cold shower still visibly shaking. He could barely hold himself up. "My luck just isn't going to get any better, is it?"

Suddenly Edward could feel his throat tightening and his eyes beginning to sting just a little. In his effort to fight back the threatening tears he uttered an indignant growl and slammed his automail fist into the wall of the shower, shattering the tiles.

"Damn you, Mustang!"

**Bad Temper: **Writing this chapter was REDICULOUS! But I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I hope you guys are too. :P Who's ready for smut! I'm ready for smut! Are YOU ready for smut? Imma write the smutty stuff next. Kay? Kay. ^_^ Are and are!


	13. Chapter 13

**Bad Temper: **Oh. My. God. Y'all this one took for EVER! I am SO sorry for the wait. But I wanted to make sure that this one played out well. And it did. I hope y'all didn't give up on me, cus this chapter was a BEAST to write and it is teh awesome! Please PLEASE review and tell me what you think!

**Chapter 13**

Breda and Fury handed their reports to Lieutenant Hawkeye at the same time. She was on her way into the Colonel's office to leave them on his desk when suddenly a blur of uniform-blue flew by her and the office door was slammed – for all intensive purposes – in her face.

"Colonel?"

On the other side of the door, Mustang went straight for his chair and plopped down, feeling as if he were made of lead. He slouched and stared across the room at the door. He half expected the spitfire blonde to come barging through howling and cussing at him and beating him in the face until it was severely discolored and concaved. The likelihood of that happening was so great that it damn near terrified the Colonel. So naturally when he saw the doorknob turning, he leapt out of his chair and held a hand up at his side, ready to snap.

"Whaddyawant!"

"Colonel Mustang?"

"Oh… It's just you, Hawkeye." Mustang sighed and dropped back into his seat.

"What's wrong, sir?" Riza knew there was little else that could rile the man into such an animated panic aside from her self. And seeing as how she was not the cause, the Lieutenant was quite worried about her superior.

"Shut the door, Lieutenant." Mustang responded sounding strangely urgent.

"What happened – "

"Shut it!"

"Yesser." Riza closed the door and then turned back to her boss to speak again, but didn't get the chance.

"Lock it."

Without saying anything this time, she reached to lock the door, eyeing her boss as she did so.

Seeing the demanding look of concern on his Lieutenant's face, Mustang decided that he owed her some type of explanation. He slumped forward, resting his elbows on his desk and burying his face in his hands. "I… I just walked in on Edward…"

"You'll have to elaborate sir. I don't quite understand." Riza replied flatly.

She could see her boss' shoulders rise and fall as he heaved a deep breath. There was a long pause. Eventually the Colonel sat up abruptly and looked her in the eye as if he were about so say something, but he remained silent.

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Later that night, at the mess hall, Alphonse and Winry sat across from each other at one of the less occupied tables and bantered away about the happenings of the day.

As Al was talking about how he couldn't wait to have his body back so he could actually EAT when they came to dinner at the Command Center, Winry spotted something off to the right that drew her interest.

"Hey look, it's Ed."

Al turned to look in the direction that Winry had been looking. "Oh yea! Hey brother! Over here!"

The two of them waved at the older Elric, beckoning him over.

Edward spotted his favorite peers half way into the bustle of the mess hall waving excitedly at him. Slowly, he trudged towards them, shouldering his way through the other military officers. Once he reached them he sat down quietly next to his brother at the table.

"Aren't you going to get some food, Brother?"

"Nah. I'm not hungry."

"Oh."

"How was your day, Edward? Did you get that extra sleep you wanted?"

Edward's face pulled into a blatant grimace. "No. I didn't."

"Aw. All that trouble for no-"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Edward interrupted curtly. "So Al, did you show Winry a good time?"

"Huh?"

Winry giggled at the slightest innuendo in Edward's question that had obviously flown right over Al's head, despite his height.

"Brother, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Al!" Ed said with a fake smile plastered on his face, "Now are you going to tell me about your day or not?"

"Um, yea! Well we…"

The three of them went on to talk about Al and Winry's day, and Edward made a point to steer their conversation away from the subject of HIS day. He just didn't want to talk about it or think about it or so much as ever remember it again. But unfortunately the memory of the incident had permanently wedged itself into his brain.

"Hey Brother, are those the gloves that the Colonel got for you?"

So much for that…

"Huh? Oh yea…" Ed looked at his gloved hands that were safely void of any alchemy circles. He remembered finding them in a package on the floor of his room right after what had… _Dammit don't think about it, Ed!_

"And you're wearing the clothes that I brought from home." Winry added. "You're all put together and back to normal now. Oh! And Gramma said to tell you to stop tearing up your jackets. Remaking them is getting expensive. Now that you're starting to get taller, it's taking more material to make one." She waved a finger at him as she added that last part.

"Heh. Sorry, Winry. I'll try not to."

The three youngsters spent the rest of their evening in pleasant conversation. Edward found himself less of a participant and more of a spectator as he looked on and noticed with fascination the way his younger brother eagerly asked Winry every question he could possibly think of about automail mechanics and the way Winry seemed just as eager to indulge him as much as she possibly could, which included using Ed's arm as an example from time to time. Edward didn't mind though. He just stayed quiet for the most part, trying not to draw attention to himself (aside from his arm that is.)

As the darkness of the night deepened the elder brother grew more and more distant and quiet, often staring at a crack in the wall or a stain in the old linoleum floor. The three had migrated to his room where they had been talking for a couple hours now. Alphonse sat on the love seat next to Winry who was getting ready to leave for her own room and Ed sat at his desk resting his chin in his left hand, staring at a cobweb in the corner. He had grown dead quiet by this point and it had drawn his little brother's attention.

"Brother?"

Edward shifted his eyes to look at Al.

"What's the matter? You've been acting weird all day."

Edward groaned. "Nothing, Al. I act weird all the time. Its just that tomorrow's _really_ gunna suck."

"Why? Cus Winry is leaving in the morning?"

"…" Ed stared blankly at his brother for a second. "Yea…"

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That night, Edward had finally managed to get a descent amount of sleep. It was a solid and dreamless sleep. But when he got up this morning he still felt exhausted as if he hadn't slept in three days. He supposed that it was the knowledge of having to report to Colonel Mustang that made him drag his feet.

He really didn't have the nerve to look the man in the eyes. He just knew that when the Colonel looked at him from that moment on, all the man would be able to see is that mental image of Edward wearing nothing but **his** trademark gloves while he masturbated.

The blonde felt his face flush again. He kept his eyes on his feet as he trudged down the halls all the way to that damn office.

Everyone in the main office acted normal as ever. Havoc gave him a wave and a greeting and Fury smiled and greeted him as well. The other two nodded at his glance. _C'mon people! Don't you get it! Something terrible has happened. Why are y'all so relaxed? _Edward thought to himself as he made his way to his desk, barely managing a nod in return to his coworkers. They acted as if nothing happened yesterday.

He sighed. Of course they did. Nobody knew about it but him. Well, nobody except for Mus… _Ugh, I hate my life right now._

"Fullmetal."

Ed's head nearly hit the ceiling at the sudden sound of his superior's voice.

"Ah! Lieutenant Hakeye! Hi! Um. Heh. Sorry, you startled me. I was just…"

"Calm down, Mr. Fullmetal."

"Ah, er, okay." Edward looked up at Hawkeye still flustered and still slightly flushed from earlier. Looking into her tea-colored eyes, he thought that he glimpsed something in them. The way she looked down at him, the slightest curl at the corners of her lips. Like she knew something… "Wait…" Edward narrowed his eyes at his superior. "He… He TOLD you!"

The room fell silent. Edward whipped his head around to glare at all the other officers who stared in confused curiosity at his outburst. It was common with Mustang or his little brother but not with Hawkeye. Everyone knew better than to yell at Hawkeye. Ever. They all watched with anticipation to see what the marksman would do in response.

To everyone's amazement, especially Edward's, Hawkeye let a faint giggle escape her full pink lips. Ed whipped his head around again to look back to Hawkeye, his braid hitting him in his face with the violent motion.

"What the hell's so funny!"

Hawkeye straightened her face and addressed Edward in her normal professional manner. "I'm sorry, sir. Mustang has asked to see you in his office."

"Oh yea? Well tell him that I said to go fuc-"

"Why don't you tell me yourself, Fullmetal?" came the boss's voice from across the room.

Edward looked over his shoulder at Colonel Mustang who was standing in the doorway to his office. He quickly turned back to his desk, completely uninterested in facing his superior. "Never mind," he mumbled.

"Fullmetal."

Ed didn't acknowledge him.

"In my office, Fullmetal."

"No."

"That's an order!"

The indignant blond cut his amber eyes at his boss before slowly hoisting himself from his chair and all but stomping towards his boss's office with his head down and his hands stuffed in his pockets.

All the other occupants of the office watched as their Colonel closed the door. Havoc was the first person to move towards the door to eavesdrop, but was met with the feeling of the cold metal of Hawkeyes revolver being pressed into his temple.

"Get back to work, Mr. Havoc."

"Y-yes ma'am."

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The young blonde alchemist stood still in the middle of the room making no move to sit down or speak to his boss. He kept his eyes on the ground trying in vain to hide his brilliant blush under the shadow of his bangs.

"Have a seat, Edward."

The use of his first name earned a brief glance from his subordinate before wandering over to the black leather couch and sitting down gently. He leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at his hands, still refusing to look at Colonel Mustang.

Edward felt the couch dip slightly as another weight settled into it. He glanced across the floor to see the boots that belonged to Mustang who had apparently joined him on the couch. He turned his eyes back to his hands.

"Edward."

The young man focused harder on his hands, twining and untwining them as a means for distraction.

"I'm sorry about wal-"

"Shuddup."

The Colonel let out a long exhale before leaning forward and assuming a position that mirrored the young Elric's. He pinched the bridge of his nose. The two men sat in a tense and immensely uncomfortable silence for the next few minutes. Both of their minds reeled, wondering what they should say or if they should just leave or if it was even safe to look each other in the eye.

Finally, Colonel Mustang had had enough. With a huff, he broke the silence. "Edward, how old are you now?"

There was a pause, but Ed finally answered, "Seventeen."

"Ah that's right. You're turning into quite the young man." Mustang said with a nod. "Look, Edward, you're maturing. You're growing up and filling out and developing in a lot of ways…"

Edward remained quiet. The air around his slender frame was so thick with tension you could almost see it.

"What I happened to walk in on yesterday was part of a perfectly natural process. There's nothing for you to be ashamed of. In fact, from what I saw, you should actually be pretty proud of yourself." There was a hint of a chuckle in the Colonel's voice.

The younger officer finally broke his silence, burying his face in his hands and groaning. "Ugh, Gates. You saw that too?"

"I saw everything, Ed."

Ed lowered his head even farther to run his hands through his bangs. "This is so awkward."

"Yes it is." Mustang agreed leaning back into his couch.

"And why did you have to tell Hawkeye about this?"

Mustang shrugged. "I didn't know what to do. I needed some advice and women always seem to know how to handle these things. I guess it's that intuition of theirs."

"Hmph. So what did she say?"

"Well… First she laughed at me. Then… then she told me that I should probably give you the _talk. _Seeing as how you haven't really had a father figure to guide you through what you've been going through."

"The talk?" Ed looked over at his boss with curious eyes as his mind tried to decode the word 'talk'.

"Y'know, the birds and the bees?"

"Birds and the b – Oh no!" Ed sat upright and rigid, waving his hands at his superior. "No thank you! I'm good. I've got that covered! I've read a couple books on it. I don't need the sex talk. Really."

"Good." Mustang replied sounding almost as frantic as Edward.

The two men let out a simultaneous sigh of relief as they both leaned back into the couch. Thank Gates neither of them would have to go through anything more awkward.

"So…" Ed rubbed his hands together as if to warm them but it was just out of sheer nervousness. "I don't suppose you'll be wanting those gloves back now…"

Mustang held up his hands to refuse the offer. Ed understood and bowed his head again. Throughout this entire embarrassing conversation, Ed's face had grown hotter and hotter to the point where he had simply given up on trying to hide it. Stealing another curious glance at his boss, he was astonished to find a slight red tint on his cheeks as well. He looked back down at his own hands again still rubbing them together nervously.

"That leads me to my next question, Ed."

"Mhm?" Ed looked back up at his boss.

Now it was Mustang who was staring at his own hands where they were clasped together in his lap. There was yet another awkward silence as the Colonel seemed lost in thought. Ed could almost see the gears spinning out of control in his head.

"Why…" the pressure seemed to visibly build in the older officer. Finally he jerked his head to look Edward in the eyes. "Why my gloves!"

"Wha?"

"Of all the props you could have used! Why my gloves, Edward!"

Ed stared in shock at his boss, his wide honey colored eyes locked with the narrow onyx ones that stared back, demanding an answer, some kind of explanation.

"Gah, um, well, er…" Ed couldn't find any actual words to respond with and just clamped his jaw shut. Mustang's eyes still held his gaze relentlessly and it made the younger man uncomfortable and fidgety. Ed could feel his nerves building until he shook. Finally he snapped, wrenching his eyes away from that hypnotizing glare and jumping off of the couch. "Fuck you, Mustang! Just because you saw me doesn't give you the right to question me! You ever heard of privacy you pervert! I don't have to answer to you about what I do with my alone time!"

Edward made for the door but he wasn't quick enough. Like a blur, Mustang moved to stand steadfast between him and his way out. Edward bared his teeth at the older man wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face… and kiss those pale lips at the same time.

"Dammit, Mustang!"

"You're not leaving my office until you answer my question, Edward."

"Fuck you, Colonel!"

"Why were you wearing my gloves, Ed?"

Edward lurched forward and shoved his superior. The Colonel responded by grabbing his mismatched wrists and holding them tight with his strong, warm hands.

Now it was Ed's heart that lurched forward, trying to escape through Ed's sternum. His face was already so flushed with so much blood that he wasn't able to blush any further and instead tears began to sting the corners of his eyes. He fought them back as he fought against the firm grips on his wrists. Mustang's hands were hot and their touch seemed to electrify him spurring him into even more frantic struggling as he tried to deny the truth to himself and his boss.

It was pointless though. He had already made the truth painfully obvious through his actions as he refused to answer to his boss's implication.

Mustang suddenly wrapped his arms tight around the younger alchemist, clasping his hands behind the blonde and pinning his arms down by his side. The action forced their fronts together, and the side of Ed's face was pressed against the top of Mustang's chest. And he could hear… He could hear Colonel Mustang's heartbeat. It pounded so hard he could feel it against his cheek and it raced so fast that it matched the rate of his own. The contact between them sent waves of heat through the young blonde's body. And the smell of the Colonel's skin and hair and detergent made him feel almost dizzy. All of Edward's senses had become so overloaded that all brain functions had come to complete halt and he was now running on pure emotion.

"Tell me, Ed."

"Because…" Edward finally relented to his boss's vice grip, "Because I was curious."

"Curious of what?" Mustang could feel the younger man trembling against him. He slowly unclasped his hands and slid one hand up his back until it met the back of Ed's neck and he held it gently but firmly. Edward hunched his shoulders in response to the contact. "Curious of what it would feel like… to be touched by the Flame Alchemist?"

Edward didn't retort with a violent rant or try to wrench himself away and punch him in the teeth. He didn't even attempt alchemy on him. It was his silence now that told Mustang what he needed to know.

"Am I right?"

"Yes." Came a soft resigned whisper from the blonde head that was tucked perfectly under Mustang's chin.

Mustang dipped his head down to whisper into the blonde's crimson ear. "In that case. I'd be more than happy to let you experience the real thing, Edward."

Edward finally moved again. He bent his arms at the elbows and placed his hands against the Colonel's torso to push himself away from him just far enough so that he could look up at him. "What are you saying, you bastard?" he grumbled. "You better not be playing some kind of sick trick on me."

"Absolutely not. It's just that the way I see it; you want to know what it's like to be touched by the Flame Alchemist and I want to know what it feels like to touch the Fullmetal Alchemist." He pulled the now compliant blonde back against him gently. "So I think I know the perfect way to indulge both our curiosities."

"Colonel Mustang?"

"Hm?"

"We're at work."

"Yes we are aren't we?"

"This… this d-doesn't seam like the time or place to be having… revelations like this." Ed's voice was a low and raspy whisper. The sound of it tickled Mustang's ears. It was a sexy tone of voice although that may not have been the younger man's intention. But whether or not that was the case it still enticed the Colonel.

Mustang began to release his subordinate and the kid immediately made to scramble away from him. But before he could, Mustang had a hold on his wrists again.

"Let go of me, Mustang."

"What's the matter, Ed? I thought we had come to an understanding."

"Not yet." He growled, balling his hands into fists. "I know you're womanizing reputation. And I am NOT going to be one of your meaningless flings. I'm not a man man-whore like you. In fact, I'm still a… um."

"A virgin?" Mustang finished rather bluntly. "Yes, I know."

Ed scowled at him in response to his blatant use of the word.

Mustang smiled down at him. It was different from his usual omnipotent smug grin. It was sweet. Kind. Ed felt the scowl fade from his face.

"Edward Elric. I have no intention of treating you like a fling. We can take it slow. We can do nothing at all. We can pretend that this never happened and you can hold on to those gloves as a memento." Mustang moved his hands to hold both of Ed's. "OR, you can stop by my place tonight after work and we can have a nice dinner and talk about it."

Edward gazed up at his superior. His mouth hung open just slightly and the blush had faded, ever so slightly, and had been replaced with a look of fascination. Mustang ducked his head to meet the dazed golden gaze.

"Mustang…"

"Call me Roy?"

As soon as the first name passed through his lips, Ed all but leapt at him, grabbing the older man's shoulders and pulling himself up to crush his lips against Mus – Roy's. Immediately the two men were wrapped around each other. Ed had closed his arms around Roy's neck and Roy encircled Ed's wait. They pulled each other as close as possible and explored the tastes of each other's hungry mouths.

Finally, FINALLY the blood slowly seemed to leave Ed's face and began to occupy a different region of his body instead. The Colonel noticed this all too well and acted on impulse, sliding his hands down to Ed's round little ass and squeezed it tight, lifting the blonde in the process.

"Wah! What are you do-" Ed was interrupted by another delving kiss from his boss and he instinctively wrapped his legs around Roy's hips to hold himself at the level that he had been brought to. This new position caused their groins to grind against each other and he arched into the sensation.

Roy reveled in the sensation of Ed's taught body arching against him and devoured every little moan the uttered through his soft chapped lips.

It was Ed who finally broke the fevered kiss, throwing his head back in a way that made Colonel Mustang stare up at him with a glazed expression.

"Mustang."

"Roy."

"Roy. Can we please stop?"

Roy laughed. "You started this."

"I know. I just mean for now."

Roy gave him that sweet smile again. "Of course." He let the younger one down wrapped his arms around his waist again. "So, I'll see you at my place tonight?"

"What time?"

"Eight O'clock."

"I'll be there."

They shared one last kiss. It was sweet and chaste and the perfect ending to a perfect beginning.

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"Screw you, shit Colonel! If you're going to give me so much grief why don't you just write your OWN fucking report!" Ed howled as he slammed open the office door and stormed out of the office.

Havoc, Fury, Breda, Falman, and even Hawkeye nearly leapt from their seats at the sudden outburst.

"What the hell happened in there?" Breda asked as Edward stomped past him.

"The damn Colonel happened, that's what!" And like that, Edward was gone from the office off to who knows where.

"Well, it's nice to see Fullmetal's back to normal. He's been acting kinda weird lately."

"He's a teenager. What do you expect?" Hawkeye stated mater-of-factly.

"Good point."

Riza Hawkeye peered into the Colonel's office to see him slouching lazily over his desk thumbing through paperwork just as always. But upon closer inspection she glimpsed a faint smile gracing his features.

_I wonder what happened in there…_

**Bad Temper:** Here come da smut! And hey, if you have any ideas on how the next chapter should play out, please feel free to leave me any suggestions in your reviews. I may or MAY NOT use them. It's not personal, I just need some ideas to bounce off of, y'know? Now please R&R! The more reviews/suggestions I get, the sooner the next chapter will come! Luv ya, readers! :D


	14. Chapter 14

**Bad Temper:** Oh. My. GOD! This took for ever and a DAY! #$%#$%^&#! Sorry for the wait readers! I spent HOURS of my life trying to make sure this chapter came out perfect! After all, nobody like half-assed smut. And there's a LOT of smut. I hope you guys love it! Thank you soooo much for you patience and please please PLEASE review!

**Chapter 14**

Edward kicked the little innocent rocks in his path as he trudged down the sidewalk. He kept his head down and his fists shoved in his pockets. The dark red turtleneck that he was wearing had turned out to be a good choice. The October nights were getting brisk as November quickly approached. Aside from that he was unable to find a descent pair of pants other than his dress slacks so he had settled on his usual black leather pants and the same old clunky boots.

Until now, the term "butterflies in your stomach" had always been a rather silly sounding expression to Ed. But now that it applied to him, he understood why people called it that. The little butterflies fluttered about frantically in his belly as he drew closer and closer to his destination.

Al had always been a great help to him with a lot of things when he needed advice, but not this time. That morning, Al had asked, before he left for the train station if he could go to Resenbool with Winry. Ed really had no problem with the idea. In fact he was glad he asked. Now that the Homunculi were finally gone and the two brothers were able to research ways to get his body back, he felt there was no harm in the younger boy living life, armor or not. And after seeing the way he behaved around Winry he knew immediately why his little brother wanted to go. Ed wanted him to go too.

But that left him with no insightful little brother to go to this evening when he was trying frantically to get ready for his… date? No, his dinner. So on his way out of the lobby - in his desperation - he acted on impulse and asked the sweet looking desk clerk what she thought he should do if he were to go to dinner with someone he really really really liked for the first time. Between annoyingly girly giggles and coos all the sweet girl had managed to tell him was to "be him self".

_What the hell does that even mean? _He grumbled in his head. _Who else would I be? It's not like I'm gunna walk in there pretending to be Hawkeye or something._

After he finished that last thought, Edward found himself standing on the doorstep of what he assumed was Mustang's house. To be honest he didn't really know how long he'd been there, or how long he would be there before he finally got up the nerve to ring the damn doorbell.

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Mustang was just setting the silverware out on the table in his dining room. It felt weird setting the table for once. He usually took his meals to his library or to the couch to be eaten in comfortable solitude, but he almost never used his dining room. Seeing as how he lived alone and rarely had any company, the dining room was too big and empty. It got lonely.

As he was going about setting the table and musing over the coming evening, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He turned to look out the living room window across from the dining room and saw none other than Edward Elric bustling by on his way to the front steps.

He quickly snapped his fingers to light the candles in the center of the table and then took off his gloves and set them neatly on the corner of the table before making his way to the front door to greet his oh so anticipated guest.

After a moment, however, he noticed that the doorbell had yet to be rung. He peered out the peephole and was barely able to see the top of Ed's head where he stood staring at the door.

"Heh. Shorty." He mused to himself. Then he opened the door.

Edward nearly jumped out of his boots when the heavy chestnut door opened on its own.

"Gah! Colonel Mustang! I uh… I was just…"

"How long did you plan on standing out here? And didn't I tell you to call me Roy?"

Ed's mouth pulled itself into a tight line, making his nervousness very apparent on his face.

Mustang chuckled. "Come in, Edward." He stood to the side and gestured for the younger to enter. Ed accepted albeit skeptically. He eyed his superior as he walked past him.

"Wow." The blonde gawked at his surroundings. Mustang chuckled to himself at the sight.

The house was dimly lit in the late evening. Although Ed detected some sort of mood lighting but maybe it was just the way the light from outside reflected off of the smooth cherry wood floors and matching coffee table and end tables. The walls were a warm creamy beige color that complemented the faint red tent of the cherry wood. In the living room to the right of the foyer was an exact replica of the black leather couches in Mustang's office. On the left was a study area that contained a large desk with a few ornate embellishments carved into its deep cherry wood edges, making the study look a little more lavish than the rest of his home. Directly in front of him was the dividing wall between the first two rooms with a staircase on its left leading up to the second floor. For some reason, the sight of it made the butterflies in Ed's stomach flutter around a bit more. Before his cheeks had the chance to turn pink for the umpteenth time, he turned his attention back to the downstairs. Judging by the delicious smell wafting through the air, he guessed that there must be a kitchen down here too.

In the meantime, Mustang had shut the door behind Edward and watched him for a moment. He let the young man take in his surroundings at his own pace. All the while there was an ear-to-ear grin on his face. Never before had Mustang felt so proud to invite someone into his home and show off how clean and ambient it was on the inside.

"You like it?"

"Um… Yea it's really nice."

"You sound surprised."

"Well," Ed scratched his head. "I had always assumed that Hawkeye was the one keeping your office so neat and clean. I guess it's been you all this time. Heheh."

Mustang laughed at Ed's lighthearted attempt at a joke. Then, oh-so-suavely, he placed his hand gently on his subordinate's lower back and pressed just a little to guide him through the house. He felt Edward tense briefly before relaxing and falling in stride with him.

When they made it to the dining room, Ed stopped in his tracks. Now he was the one grinning ear-to-ear. The candles. The folded napkins. The expensive looking plates…

"Wow. You really went all out."

Mustang grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

"What are you cooking anyway? It smells amazing."

"Grilled lemon pepper chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed asparagus with parmesan."

Mustang looked over to see Edward staring back up at him, partly shocked and partly mocking.

"What? I haven't had an excuse to cook something nice in a while."

"You trying to woo me or something?" Edward chimed.

"Well yea, that's the idea."

Ed hadn't anticipated that response. Mustang chuckled again when he saw Ed's cheeks flush bright pink. He walked over to the table and pulled out a chair for his little blonde. His? Maybe not yet. That's what he was working on tonight.

Edward sat down rather timidly and watched his… watched _Mustang_ walk into the adjacent kitchen and pull a pan out of the oven. He brought the portions into the dining room and sat them all down in the middle of the table. As the man moved to dish some hefty portions onto Edward's plate, the younger man's eyes were locked on the older. He observed the casual black slacks and the white button down shirt that was un-tucked and hung snug around his slim hips. His sleeves were rolled up to just below his elbows just as they had been a couple days ago when all this awkwardness had started.

_You bastard_, Edward thought at his… superior.

"Dig in." Mustang invited and sat down across from Edward.

Dig in he did. The young blonde scooped the food into his mouth like a he hadn't eaten in days. But it was really just his attempt to distract himself from his situation.

The older man ate his food patiently as he watched the flustered young alchemist shovel his food away.

"Slow down there, champ."

"Don't call me champ!" Edward jabbed his fork in his boss's direction, "I'm not a kid so small you wanna call him a champ!"

"No. You're a kid so **cute** I wanna call him a lot of names like cutie, sweetie, darling…"

"Shuddup! I'm not cute!"

"Yes you are."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am NOT!"

Edward slammed his hands on the table and leaned over to get in Mustang's face as he made that last declaration. Rather than continue their verbal dispute, however, Mustang simply leaned forward and planted a kiss on the volatile teen's lips.

He was frozen. His superior sat back and smiled lightly at the sight of the adorable blushing blonde who sat quietly back down in his chair and stared down at his plate in silence for a moment before picking up his knife and fork again and eating slowly.

"See? Now how would you describe what just happened?"

Edward grumbled something but it was indiscernible through his mouthful of steak and potatoes.

"Hm. Well I thought it was cute."

Edward grumbled through his mouthful again, but Mustang was pretty sure he was able to make out the word 'bastard.'

After that, Mustang initiated some small talk, which his subordinate seemed all too grateful for. They chatted lightheartedly via the candlelight. Every now and then they would come to a pause and Edward would find himself glancing away from his superior's hypnotizing gaze. The way the small flames from the candles flickered and reflected in those sharp onyx eyes stirred up the butterflies every time. But soon he noticed that every time he looked away, he had a smile on his face, faint though it may be.

Once they finished, Mustang got up to take the dishes to the kitchen and then returned to the dining room. He sat back down at the table and looked at Ed.

"So now what?"

Edward shrugged. "I dunno. You're the one doing the woo'ing." He had noticed the gloves that had been left on the table corner. He picked them up and was pulling them on almost absent-mindedly. He wiggled his fingers and then made fists to adjust them into place.

"Y'know Edward," Mustang began in a lower, huskier tone than Ed was used too. Ed looked up at him through his lashes, his eyebrows hiked due to the inflection that he detected in the colonel's voice. "Rather than stealing another pair of my gloves, I'd be more than willing to let you experience the real thing."

Ed scoffed and shook his head slightly. "You pervert." He said in an irritated tone of voice. But the sly grin on his face that followed that statement didn't match that tone of voice at all.

The grin caught Colonel Mustang off guard. He paused to look over the teen again and search for changes. And he found them. It was hard to tell in the dim candlelight but the kid's face had flushed a deep red, his grin had faded in to something akin to a pout, and his eyes… his golden eyes gleamed in the warm glow of the candlelight. His gaze was focused, almost fierce. Something was obviously going through his head. And whatever it was, Mustang was pretty sure he would like it.

The colonel was so enamored by the glinting golden gaze that it startled him when the young chief suddenly leaned forward and blew out the candles. And yet somehow, in the dark, he could still see the glint in his eyes as if the small flames were still lit. And the chief didn't stop there. He continued across the table, slinking like a cat, eyes fixed on his, like a damn predator. Mustang stared back, holding his ground. They were nose to nose now. And it was Edward who started it.

He brushed his lips lightly to Mustang's. When he felt Mustang lean forward so did he until their lips were pressed firmly together. He felt Mustang's slick tongue grazing across his lips and he opened his mouth with want, letting the older man take over and delve in with immense skill.

Despite how wonderful it felt, Edward was still holding his breath and Mustang could tell. The colonel stood up abruptly, not once breaking the kiss, bringing his chief to an angle where it was only practical for him to sit on the table. He put his hands on the mismatched shoulders and the chief responded by grabbing on to his dress shirt. With that contact, Mustang could now tell that the kid was shaking almost violently.

Now he understood.

Edward **wanted it** but he was still scared out of his mind.

_Poor thing, _Mustang mused to himself. He would have to put a stop to that. He wrapped his arms around Edward and pulled him off the table. The blonde fell against him and made a "huff" when the air was knocked from his belly. Edward stopped for a moment and looked up with wide eyes, for just a moment, before impulsively grabbing the sides of the taller man's neck and pulling him down into a crushing kiss while at the same time crushing his body against the older man's as well. Mustang helped by tightening his arms around Ed's waist and pulling him even closer and he swallowed every moan that escaped those precious lips.

The force of their embrace caused Mustang to stumble backwards slightly and knock over the chair behind him. They broke their kiss again at the sudden clatter. After a moment of heavy panting and brief glances at the chair, Mustang grabbed Ed by the wrist and all but dragged him through the house and up the stairs. His blonde mess following him in such a daze that he seemed to stumble over the cracks in the hard wood floors.

Before he knew it, Edward was being tossed onto a large, plush bed. He landed on his back with another huff and as soon as his Mustang landed on top of him, his arms were instantly clamped around the strong neck and his mouth was instantly pressed to Mustang's with bruising force.

Lying down on top of the blonde, Mustang could feel the tell tale sign of Edward's lust grinding against his own. And he could feel the slighter hips begin to rock against his as the boy writhed with growing need beneath him.

Mustang broke the kiss again, throwing his head back and sucking in a deep breath of air, trying desperately to calm his urges. As much as he was dying to unleash his lust on this gorgeous creature lying under him, he didn't want to hurt him. He didn't want to move too fast or do anything the boy would regret. He felt one set of nails digging into his back through his shirt.

"Hey. What the hell's your problem? Why'd you stop?" Edward growled at the sudden separation.

"Edward…"

"Yea. That's me."

"Edward, I don't… I don't want you to feel pressured. If you don't think you're ready-"

Edward cut him off, "Mustang, I've punched you in the face for a lot less. If I didn't want this, you'd be in need of an ambulance by now."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh just shut up and fuck me!"

The sound of Ed's voice when he said that was breathy and so needy that it erased any doubts in Mustang's head and replaced them with the pure primal urge to do just as he was told.

He sat up to a kneeling position on the bed, bringing Ed up with him so that he was sitting on his thighs with his legs wrapped around his waist. He peeled off Ed's snug turtleneck and Ed made quick work of the buttons of his shirt. As soon as he shrugged that off, he wrapped his arms around Ed again and went straight for his neck. He kissed just below the left ear and made his way down to his nape, licking and nipping at the tender skin. Edward leaned his head back and tightened the grip of his thighs around Mustang's hips, grinding their now aching erections together. The friction earned a deep groan from the older man as he continued to ravish Ed's neck, which sent shudders through the younger man's body.

The two of them toppled back down and without pause, Mustang moved down to Ed's waist and made deft work of his belt. He pulled the clingy leather down along with Ed's black boxers. Ed raised his hips high off of the bed to help Mustang along. When the fabric was pulled away, the young man's throbbing member sprung free and smacked against his lower belly. Mustang had to take a moment to survey the writhing blonde mess once again. There was no more nervousness, and no more shaking. Just heavy panting and scarred tan skin, dappled by the heat and glistening from the sweat. Just needy moans, and a throbbing member, and a look of desire that could almost devour a full-grown man - one such as Colonel Roy Mustang. And Mustang was okay with that.

When a raspy growl emanated from the swollen parted lips, Mustang instantly stopped his gawking and finished removing the pants and the boots and then made quick work of the rest of his own clothing.

As he crawled back on top of Edward, Mustang saw the hungry look in the blonde's eyes as he took in the sight above him, drinking it in, burning it into his mind. Then his gaze fixed onto a certain part of his superior. Mustang grinned that smug grin that Edward was so familiar with.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

Those intense golden eyes shot back up to meet his. "Listen you bastard," he ground out, "this **is** my first time so try to be gentle with that thing!"

"So** I'm** your first?"

"Shuddup! I wouldn't want it any other way, so get on with it already!"

After a moment of being slightly taken aback by the backhanded complement, Mustang smiled. It wasn't his smug grin this time, but a loving and sweet smile that only grew the more he looked down at the indignant blonde trying furiously to control the redness of his face. Seeing the dwindling patience though, Mustang leaned over and opened the drawer of the bedside table. From it he produced a small glass bottle. Ed watched closely as Mustang sat back in a crouching position between his mismatched legs and poured some of the bottle's contents into his hand. He handed the bottle to Ed to put back on the nightstand.

"Have you done this before?"

"Never with another man. And either way, it's been a while."

"Really? But you're such a womanizer."

"Don't believe everything you hear, Ed." Mustang leaned over him, supporting himself on his left arm and using his right ring and middle fingers to rim Ed's extremely tight entrance earning a pleasurable gasp. "I don't take home every girl who throws herself at me. It's more of a front than anything else."

"But all those times you're on the phone flirting…"

"I'm usually giving Hawkeye orders in code. Simple concept really."

"But…"

"Look, Ed. This doesn't have to happen. If you're having second thoughts, just say so. I'll understand."

"No! It's just… I don't wanna be one of your damn flings all right?" Ed reached down and grabbed Mustang's prodding hand. He snarled at his boss. "If you're going to take my virginity it better fucking **mean** something! This better **go** somewhere!"

That damn sweet smile was back. Mustang leaned down so that their lips were barely brushing against each other. "Edward Elric, you are everything but a fling. You have no idea how much this… how much **you** mean to me. And I would love for this to **go** somewhere as long as you prefer the same."

Edward's grip on Mustang's hand began to loosen as he processed the wonderful things that the man had just said. And as soon as he let go, Mustang slid one finger in. Edward yelped and nearly leapt off the bed. The fit was extremely tight despite the lube.

"Gah! Why don't you warn me next time, you bastard!" Edward shut up and threw his head back when he felt the finger in him begin to move in smooth even strokes. He closed his eyes and bared his teeth.

"You okay?"

"Don't stop."

"Heh. Okay then." He made circular motions with his hand to try and stretch the insanely tight hole. "This is going to take some work…" He began to force in a second digit.

Edward whimpered and moaned and arched his back and drew up his knees. With his middle and ring finger fully engulfed, Mustang massaged Ed's entrance, making circles still. But he was sure that there was little he could do that would prepare the young officer for his girth.

_Be gentle he says. I might not be able to do that. But I'll try._

Not knowing what to do, the novice blonde squirmed underneath Mustang and moaned and wined for more. Feeling encouraged, Mustang began to add his index finger as well. Edward's grip tightened around his neck and his flesh hand clenched and unclenched in his dark silky mess of hair.

Once the third finger joined the others, Ed took in a sharp hissing breath and then exhaled with a moan. The circles that Mustang was making became wider and his thrusts became deeper and before he knew it, he could feel Ed rocking with the motion, grinding down onto his hand and huffing hot breaths into his ear.

Mustang closed their mouths together and dove his tongue into Ed's moist cavern, devouring every whimper and every moan while he thrust his hand harder with their rhythm.

With his grip still on Mustang's hair, Edward suddenly pulled him back, leaving a thin trail of saliva between them.

"Oh Gates, just get on with it. I can't take much more of this."

Without saying anything Mustang reestablished their kiss while he pulled out his fingers and reached over Ed for the glass bottle again. He poured some into his hand and sat it back on the table. Then he reached down with both hands. One hand ran up and down his length to slick it down with the slippery substance and the other went back to Ed's entrance to give him another coat to prepare him. Then with one hand guiding his large throbbing erection, he leaned on his left elbow, reaching his hand under Ed's arm to grip the novice's shoulder right where steal meets flesh.

Edward felt the broad head pressing against him and gasped.

"Take a deep breath, darling. This is going to hurt."

Edward nodded and sucked in a deep breath.

"Are you ready?"

Edward growled and nodded again.

But he wasn't. Mustang pushed slowly through Ed's tight ring of muscle and the younger man **screamed**.

"Ed?"

The blonde mess was making a raspy growling sound through his teeth as he panted. All the signs of physical pain were carved deep into his distressed features. Mustang held his breath as he waited for a reply.

"Oh Roy…"

Mustang's heart damn near leapt out of his throat at the sound of Ed using his first name while in a state of what **sounded** like pure ecstasy.

"Are you okay?" He breathed.

"Ah Roy keep going!" Edward hooked his right ankle behind Mustang's thigh and pulled him closer to make a point.

So Mustang kept going. He thrust further in. And Ed screamed again. But this time, he didn't stop. He went deeper. One would think that Edward was being beaten to death with the he was screaming but it was the moans and pants in between that made it clear to Mustang that his insatiable young blonde was not suffering by any means.

He raised himself up to support his weight on his hands and repositioned his hips between Ed's legs trying to gain a better point of leverage. He began to rock his hips in and out, slowly at first; dragging his length almost all the way out and then sliding back in. The immense heat inside of Edward and the incredible tightness of his entrance was enough to drive Mustang crazy by itself. But then there was the sound of Ed's loud groaning and the way he arched his back so high off of the bed that Mustang was almost afraid he'd break it. The younger lover pulled him down and kissed him hard before parting and putting his lips to his ear and whispering in a hot moan,

"Fuck me, Roy."

Mustang buried his face in the crook of Edward's neck and a deep baritone growl rumbled up from deep in his chest. He thrust his hips faster, deeper, and slowly picked up the pace but still going all the way in and all the way out. He began grunting like an animal with every thrust. But the sound didn't even hold a candle to the way Edward howled as if someone was breaking his arm over and over. Every now and then he would attempt to say something but it was impossible to understand through his screams.

Mustang reveled in it. It urged him on; harder, faster… But the noise… no doubt it would draw attention. As much as he loved it he knew he would have to stop it. The harder he 'did' Edward, the louder the damn blonde got. So without breaking pace, Mustang began to scan the room for something, anything. And he spotted exactly what he needed from the corner of his eye.

Edward was still wearing the alchemy gloves. _Perfect._ He stopped his movements all together and pried the mismatched hands from his shoulders and began to peel the gloves off of them.

"What…" Ed panted, "What the hell?"

"You're too loud." Mustang said matter-of-factly.

Edward's eyebrows knitted together as he tried to understand what was going on.

With both of the gloves folded in his hand, Mustang looked back up at him. "You scream so much, someone's gunna hear and think I'm committing a murder or something."

Edward made a nervous giggle and scratched his head. "S…sorry. I didn't know that I'd… Umm…"

"That you'd be a screamer?"

Ed blushed.

Mustang chuckled. "Don't worry. I think it's sexy. But you need to try and quiet down." He held out the folded gloves up to Ed's lips. "Here, bite down."

After a slight pause, Edward opened his mouth and then bit down on the gloves. The instant his teeth closed down on the material, Mustang went right back to thrusting into him. Ed resumed screaming but was muffled by the gloves now. Mustang also noticed that Ed had reached down to pump his own member frantically. Now without worry, and with the sight of Ed's ministration underneath him Mustang simply went wild. He growled and grunted and gradually began to slam into his lover harder and harder.

The two went on like this for another few minutes that seemed more like an eternity to them. They had almost become one primal beast, rocking together to the rhythm of their own heartbeats.

Soon Edward made a different noise through the gloves as if he wanted to say something. Mustang detected the sound and paused to take them out of his mouth.

"Roy I'm gunna cum!"

The older man nearly lost his mind. He dove back into Ed, tossing the now damp gloves aside. His thrusts were solid and even and deep. Ed met each one half way creating a soft thud with each motion.

"Gah, you're right on it! Don't stop!"

"Errr. Edward!"

"Oh! OH! ROY! Ahhhh!" Edward slammed his hands to the bed and pushed himself up. With his head buried in Mustang's muscular shoulder and his legs locked around Mustang's hips the only part of him still touching the bed now was just his hands.

Mustang's head spun when he felt Ed clamp down hard on his twitching cock. The blonde howled loud enough to nearly blow out Mustang's eardrum as he released his seed everywhere between them.

They collapsed on the bed in a heap of quivering muscles and glistening sweat. Ed's voice was hoarse and raspy from his screaming as he struggled to breath. Mustang panted heavily into the crook of Ed's neck.

"Aren't you going to finish?" Ed managed between breaths.

"Um…"

Ed's eyes widened. "Wait. What? Did you…?"

The older man struggled to hoist himself upright. He put his large hands on either of Ed's knees and bit his lip at the sensation as he pulled himself free from Ed's insanely tight heat. Ed looked down to see the thin white trail hanging between him and Mustang's member and then back up to see that classic smug grin on his face again.

"You did! You son of a bitch! You didn't even tell me!"

"Ed, you were so tight, I couldn't help it. I honestly didn't see it coming… no pun intended."

The blonde mess fumed for a moment. His face was flushed, his skin glistened, and his hair had almost completely fallen free of its braid. Despite everything they had done tonight, the two still found themselves marveling at each other - Ed at Mustang's broad shoulders, built body and flawless pale skin - Mustang at Ed's scars and bruises, cut muscles and tan skin…

Mustang leant down and scooped up his younger lover, pulling him into his lap. In response, Ed grimaced at the wetness between his cheeks. He supposed he would have to get used to that. His thoughts were cut off, though, when Mustang initiated a sweet and gentle kiss. Their tongues danced around each other and their teeth nipped lightly at each other's lips. There were no moans and no whimpers. Just sweetness.

"Mm-Roy?" Ed said breaking the kiss.

"Yes?" Mustang said in a near whisper.

"I… you… um…" Ed huffed. "We can still end this tonight."

"Ed, why would you say that? I want nothing more than to continue this."

"It was a preemptive statement. Cus… There's something I need to tell you."

"Oh? Well I'm sure I can handle it."

Ed heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. "I…" He opened his eyes again and locked gazes with Mustang, "I love you."

Mustang smirked. "Are you sure that's not just the endorphins talking?"

"No dammit! I don't know when it started but I've loved you for a while now! And that's why I said we could end this tonight. In case you didn't-"

Mustang cut him off. "It's okay, Ed. I just had to make sure… Because I love you too."

"…" Ed stared with wide eyes and a confused expression.

"Hm. So cute."

"Wh…" Ed snapped to, "Hey! I'm not cute you bastard!"

"Theeere he is!" With his arms still around Ed, Mustang toppled over and pulled him close to his chest.

They broke out in fits of lighthearted laughter and snuggled together as they rode out their afterglow.

"Umn, Roy?"

"Hmmm?"

"I need a shower. This stuff gets all itchy when it dries."

"Okay but only if you let me go with you. Y'know, seeing as how you got it all over me too."

**Bad Temper**: Was that not EPIC! At least for my first written lemon scene ever... Yea that was my first lemon. I said it. So if you have any pointers or suggestions on lemon-writing technique, please feel free to leave them in a review! Or just review and tell me how amazing you thought it was. Thank y'all so much! R&R.

Oh and don't worry, it isn't over. There will be more chapters in the future.


	15. Chapter 15

**Bad Temper:** Just some sweet fluff to segue into the ending chapter(s). Whether or not I include one more lemon is up to the reviewers. ^_^ So let me know! R&R please!

**Chapter 15**

Warm skin contrasted by smooth metal pressed flush against his chest, slowly rising and falling in tandem to deep even breaths. The warm scent of shampoo mixed with a strong musk wafted up from the messy blonde head tucked perfectly under his chin.

Mustang looked up and blinked blearily at the ticking clock on the nightstand. Just a couple more minutes before the alarm would go off. To avoid disturbing his still-slumbering partner, he reached over and disarmed the clock. As the Colonel, (soon to be promoted, rumor had it) Mustang had a very strict schedule. He had to be in the office by six every morning and his trusty Lieutenant Hawkeye would show up at 5:50 without fail to get him to work on time. If he wasn't out the door that minute, she would come looking for him with her gun drawn. So Mustang always made sure to be waiting on his porch by the time she arrived simply to avoid mortal injury. That didn't change the fact that he usually spent the first hour of his workday getting in a little extra sleep at his desk. But nobody had to know that.

As quietly as he could, Mustang slid out of bed, trying not to disturb his snoozing companion and made quick work of going to the bathroom to take a shower and perform his morning grooming routine. Once he had emerged twenty minutes later with a baby-smooth face and minty fresh breath, he found that Edward had rolled onto his back, exposing pretty much everything.

Edward's automail arm and leg shone like the moon in the dim morning light. Its glint caught the older man's attention and Mustang found himself marveling at the beautiful blonde yet again. As his eyes trailed over the slim but sculpted body he would occasionally pause at an old scar or fresh bruise. Then his eyes fell on the large burn on Edward's left flank. Its bright pink hue had faded since he had seen it a couple of days ago, and then there was the large bruise on his left upper arm that was turning hideous shades of green and purple in its later healing stages.

Colonel Mustang cringed as he recalled the way he had felt in that instance when he saw his subordinate get sent flying by the concussion caused by the blast. He remembered in vivid detail the way his underling struck the ground with a thud and, as soon as he could suck in another breath, began screaming and thrashing as the flames scrawled across his body. He was trying to rip off his jacket but became tangled in his panic. His screams grew more and more shrill as the flames persisted. The Colonel had run to him as fast as he could, though it could never have been fast enough, and tore at the fabric with all his might. Meanwhile Edward had ripped off his gloves that had caught fire during his struggle. Once he had been freed of the burning fabric, the young officer lay sprawled out on his back gasping for fresh air to cool his scalded throat. Mustang stooped down and put his arms around Edward to bring him to a sitting position.

The older man inwardly grimaced as he remembered the intense combination of guilt and utter helplessness that he had felt as he looked down at the thoroughly singed Fullmetal.

"How long are ya gunna stand there staring at me, Mustang? It's kinda freaky."

"Hmm. Back to Mustang already?" Mustang recovered his cool composure in a millisecond.

"Old habits die hard. You should know old man."

"Hah. You're too little to have old habits."

"Why you bastard!"

Mustang went about getting dressed as he listened to his blonde lover fly off at him. It was too early for this. But he didn't care. It still made him grin the way it always had.

"Are you listening to me!"

"Yes, Ed. Calm down. Why don't you try to get a little extra sleep?"

With Edward's unique arrangement as a state alchemist with so many extra freedoms, the younger man had a much more flexible schedule than most. He would often show up at the office around ten in the morning as apposed to six or seven. Taking a look at the clock and realizing the time, he flopped back down in bed with an aggravated sigh.

"I can't believe you woke me up this early." He mumbled.

"I didn't do anything." Mustang defended as he crossed the room to a large wardrobe that rather resembled the ornate desk in the study that Ed had seen the night before.

"Yes you did. I could FEEL you staring at me. You're such a creep."

Mustang pulled out a pair of boots and his uniform jacket from the wardrobe and made his way back over the bed. "It's not my fault you're so sexy. It's hard not to stare."

Edward scoffed but the blush on his face made it clear to Mustang that he wasn't used to such complements.

The younger man fell silent as he watched his newfound lover sit down at the foot of the bed and go about pulling on his boots and tucking in the hem of his pants. He intended to go back to sleep but he couldn't get his bleary eyes to stay closed. He just kept watching Mustang ready himself for work. The little part of his mind that had managed to wake up and begin to function was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that the infamous Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, the Hero of Ishbal, was now his lover. Edward honestly couldn't believe it.

The colonel shrugged into his jacket and then fastened it up. Then he turned to look down at Edward. There was a stern and thoughtful look on his face that made the sleepy Edward's stomach jerk slightly.

"Edward…"

Suddenly feeling awake, Edward sat up and habitually pulled the blanket over his lap to shield his exposed nether regions. "What?" He asked in an apprehensive tone.

"This thing we've got going on…" Mustang motioned between the two of them.

Edward forced himself to appear strong and collected despite the churning in his stomach. "Do you want me to leave?"

"What? No. That's not it at all." Mustang could see the immense amount of tension leave the young blonde. The sight made his heart flutter a little. It was nice to see how much Edward wanted to continue what they had started together even if the damn brat refused to admit it. "I was just thinking… You're still a minor. What you and I are doing is technically illegal."

"Mhmm." Ed nodded.

"I have a very important goal to serve this country. If I intend to make it to Fuehrer then I can't risk getting caught maintaining a relationship with a minor. I could lose my rank and my reputation and any chance of reaching my goal."

Edward remained silent, starring intensely at Mustang with those sharp yellow eyes.

"We have to be discreet about this - at least until you're of age. So no spending the night, no public affection, no…"

Edward interjected, "Keep it _professional,_" he said as he made air quotes around the word professional.

"Exactly," Mustang confirmed with a slight grin. "Just for the time being. We'll just have to be patient, Ed."

"Promise me then…" Ed stood from the bed, letting the blanket fall away. He closed the space between him self and Mustang and wrapped his arms around the strong neck of his lover. His deep amber eyes smoldered with that unwavering determination that was so unique to Ed. "Promise me that you'll be patient too and that what we have will live on far after my eighteenth birthday. Promise me that you'll be mine and only mine from now on."

"I promise…" Mustang replied in a deep silky voice as he wrapped his arms around Edward. "I'm yours for as long as you'll have me."

Their lips met gently and they fitted together perfectly. They savored the feeling of being pressed together, the taste of one another, the warmth between them. And without realizing it, Edward rose to his tippy toes in an effort to get ever closer to his new secret lover.

Speaking of secrets.

Edward "mphed" into the kiss. Mustang pulled back and looked at him quizzically.

"Um, I know this has to be a secret and all, but…"

Mustang narrowed his eyes at him.

"Can… Can I at least tell Al? I mean he's my brother and we live together. It'd be hard to keep something like this from him. Especially since he already knows how much I like you."

"Hmmmmm. I can see where that would be a problem. There are no secrets between you boys are there?"

Ed shook his head, no.

"I don't see why not. Just make sure he understands the gravity of our situation. NOONE else can no."

"I'm sure he'll understand more than anybody."

With an affirming nod, Mustang dipped his head back down for another kiss, which Ed accepted graciously. But then the younger man snapped back suddenly, startling his partner.

"Aw dammit! Al!"

"What is it?"

"Al was going to call me once he made it to Resimbool last night! I was supposed to be home in time to answer the phone!" Ed pulled on his messy hair. "Mustang, can I use your phone?"

"Sure. It's downstairs in my study."

The word 'thanks' floated in the air as Edward had already dashed out the door and down the stairs.

Since he had to go anyway Mustang followed down the stairs at his own leisurely pace, all the while musing over the fact that he had the famous Fullmetal Alchemist, Hero of the People, wandering around his house stark naked.

Mustang strolled into his study to find said naked alchemist fumbling frantically with the turn-dial. He stood behind Ed and hugged him around the waist and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek and muttered a goodbye before releasing him and heading for the door. But before he left the room he turned around.

"Hey, Ed."

Ed looked at him over his shoulder as he listened to the phone ring in his ear.

"I love you."

The words were barely loud enough to hear but they rung in Ed's ears like they had been shouted through a megaphone. Before the stunned blonde could react, Mustang was out the door.

*ring*

*ring*

*ring*

"Rockbell residence… Hello?... is anyone there?"

The gears in Edward's head slowly started turning again, "Al?"

"Brother?"

"Yea. It's me."

"Hi, brother. What are you doing calling so early? Everyone's still asleep."

"Heh. Sorry. I just realized that I missed your call last night. I didn't want you to worry."

"Oh I figured you must have just slept through it. You sleep like a rock. But thanks for calling. It's a good thing I was awake to answer the phone."

Edward laughed at his brother's small joke.

"So how'd it go with – "

"I'll tell you all about it when you get back home. Okay?"

"Okay." Al understood.

"Have fun at Winry's, Al. Glad to know you got there safe."

"Thanks brother."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Ed hung up the phone with a smile on his face. He honestly couldn't wait to spill his guts to his little brother about what had happened. Though he might omit some of the more graphic parts of their evening… He knew Al would be happy for him. Hell, he was happy for himself for once. After all that had happened… all that had been said…

Ed's heart skipped a beat as he remembered those three unbelievable words that drifted so naturally from Mustang's lips, and that were directed at him… a big goofy grin spread across his features at the realization.

"I love you too."

**Bad Temper: **'Nuther lemon? No lemon? I have a nifty little twist coming up in the last chapter. Some might love it and some might hate it. But Imma include it either way. ^_^ Are and are please!


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